News

Wachovia to waive some ATM fees in effort to take Manhattan

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July 27, 2003

NEW YORK -- Using a tactic popular with Internet banks, Wachovia Corp. plans to waive its foreign fees for using other banks ATMs and rebate up to $5 per month to cover ATM access fees charged by other banks for customers opening personal checking accounts at one of its new Manhattan offices.

Wachovia will open two Manhattan bank branches -- one in in Rockefeller Plaza and another on Madison Avenue at 45th Street -- July 28 and four more before the end of the year, according to to a report in the Charlotte (N.C.) Business Journal.

Wachovia already has investment and insurance offices in the city and branches in suburban areas around New York. During the next 18 months, the bank plans to build more Manhattan branches and expand its ATM network throughout the city.

New branch and ATM activity is heating up in the city. Wachovia rival Bank of America Corp., has announced plans to put up to 50 branches in the city, starting with some in 2004.

Cecilia Sutton, a spokesperson, said that many customers who bank in the New York suburbs or invest with Wachovia Securities have requested retail branches downtown. Wachovia says it has about 100,000 customers in the area, with 50 branches in the state of New York, 320 in New Jersey and 80 in Connecticut.

Sutton said the bank is targeting 100 square blocks of midtown Manhattan and hopes to have 10 branches in that area by the end of 2004.

Wachovia also hopes to have two branches in the Wall Street area by the end of 2004.

"After we see how we do with these 12, well make a decision to reach out into other parts of the city," Sutton told the Business Journal.

In addition, Wachovia is buying a billboard between the 33rd and 37th floors of the new Times Square Tower. The billboard will be visible on New Year's Eve just before the famous ball begins slipping downward at midnight.