“Extreme Measures — Banking on Change”

To attract young professionals and students, the Massachusetts-based Wainwright Bank & Trust Co. is rethinking its retail-banking concept.

Wainwright’s Somerville branch — with its cybercafe, neon color scheme, plush lounge area and freestanding, glass-walled fireplace — hardly resembles a bank at all. In addition to the usual services, visitors can drink free coffee while checking e-mail or surfing the Web on high-speed T1 lines.

The notorious "bankers’ hours" are out as well: Meeting rooms are open after hours for use by local nonprofit groups. "We want to be a community service — day and night," says senior VP Steven Young.

Source: Boston Globe, March 9, 2002.