You've invested very heavily in technology for an electronic network. Other New York banks say there's not going to be much profit in it and they want out. Would you care to comment?

That's what makes horse races. We think the facts are on our side. The traditional delivery of consumer services by banks is lousy. It's very poorly done at hours that are inconvenient. Customers stand in long lines on their lunch hour.

On the other side, there wasn't a single bank in New York last year that made a dollar on its New York branch system if they weighed in all the costs. If you take the checking account funds deposited by consumers and lend it out in a 12 percent environment, you can make a few dollars on your branch system. But real estate taxes keep going up, salaries always tend to climb, fringe benefits go up and the market is extremely competitive.

So, five years ago we had a choice--do we get out of the consumer business like Bankers Trust is doing? Or do we accept our responsibility to the consumer and hang in there? We decided to stay in--and we did. We spent $160 million to build our network. The banks that don't have it, that didn't spend it, say it won't work, but our share of the market is increasing. People like it.

We only have to pick up another 1 or 2 percent of the market to earn back the whole $160 million. We expect to get it. We could be wrong, but the numbers so far look pretty good. That's what business is all about, taking risks and finding out.