Coolidge and Charlesbank officials say they "gear up" to attract a large volume of new student accountstwiceeach year-Freshman Week and the start of Summer School--in the hope that some of the accounts will grow and remain with the bank for years Low service charges for all types of accounts and Merchants Cooperative's modified NOW account-lower interest but lower balance requirements--can be traced directly to the student market.

Bay Bank and Cambridge Trust draw almost uniform praise from their competition for providing efficient service. Bay Bank's appeal rests in the sheer size and breadth of its ATM network. while Cambridge Trust benefits from many longstanding ties with the Square community.

"A lot of the older money in Cambridge belongs to them," says Merchants' Logan. These deposits include term bill and Athletic Department accounts holding the very oldest money in America-Harvard University's.

One local bank officer characterizes Cambridge Trust as "the carriage-trade bank" because of their more affluent clientele, although the generalization seems to apply even more broadly to Cambridge Savings. The same official applauds Bay Bank's diverse community appeal, saying. "A former president of Bay Bank once said he catered to both sides of the street the Brattle St. neighborhood and the rest of Cambridge."

Bay Bank officials readily acknowledge their leadership status, but the bank's continual effort to offer new services is symbolic of the intense competition in the Square Recently, new forms of savings accounts, foreign language services, and further expansion of the ATM network by Bay Bank have rivalled the expansion beginning at Coolidge Bank, the upcoming installation of ATMs at Freedom Federal, and Cambridge Trust's negotiations for up to four more ATM locations aroung Cambridge.

This concentration of improvement has made the Square one of the region's watersheds of banking services and innovations. Logan of Merchants Cooperative calls the Square's large volume of banking "unusual, because there's not many places that could support it."

The Combination of year-round residents, the academic community, and the large number of tourists who visit the Square has created a great demand for banking services, an atmosphere that assures that "we're basically all offering the same rates and services," says a Coolidge Bank officer. "It's a very competitive busines."