Just Like The "Good Old Days"

Since the anthrax discovery, delivery of mail is so hampered in Washington, DC these days that the banking industry has resorted to the old fashioned way of delivering mail - by hand.

Mail sent to the Senate or the House of Representatives can sit for weeks before it is processed by the post office, deemed to be safe, and is delivered. Electronic mail is much quicker, of course, but most of it is deleted by low level staff members before it is read. Therefore letters from the banking associations to Senators and Representatives are hand carried to the individual's office. The ABA figures "mailing" letters in this fashion costs between $2 and $5 a letter, depending on the volume on any given day.

Copyright © 2003 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 13, No. 6, 8/03