Forum Discusses the Changing Banking Industry

With consolidation in the banking industry, neighborhood bank branches are becoming as scarce as drive-in movie theaters. Now with more banks encouraging customers to conduct transactions at automated-teller machines or on the Internet, is face-to-face banking all but bound for extinction? Richard Kovacevich, president and chief executive of Wells Fargo & Co., plans to talk about these and other issues sprouting from the changing landscape of the banking industry at a Wednesday gathering of the Town Hall Los Angeles issues forum. The talk is scheduled for noon at the Regal Biltmore hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. For more information, call (213) 312-9465.