Checking With Interest Wins Backing of Fed
The Federal Reserve Board yesterday endorsed the idea of permitting all financial institutions to offer customers checking accounts which pay interest.</br></br>Commercial banks and savings and loan associations do not want that authority ÛÓ but they have asked Congress to deny mutual banks the power to offer such accounts.</br></br>Mutual savings banks in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have been allowing clients to write checks against their savings accounts since last year. Commercial banks and the savings and loans fear the competition.</br></br>George W. Mitchell, a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, testified be-i'urc the Senate subcommittee on financial institutions</br></br>Mitchell said all financial institutions should be prepared to offer such accounts but required to pay a uniform amount of interest and to maintain uniform cash reserves so as to be able to honor all checks their customers write.