
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995                   TAG: 9509140058
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FIRST UNION TOWER TO LOSE ATM MACHINE

First Union National Bank of Virginia said Wednesday that it will unplug its teller machine in Roanoke's First Union Tower.

The bank will remove the automated teller machine from the lobby of the tower at Jefferson Street and Salem Avenue in about a month.

Occupants of the tower were told Wednesday the machine will shut down, said Chuck Saldarini, president of the Roanoke Valley operations of the Charlotte, N.C.- based company. The bank is the primary occupant of First Union Tower.

Although he declined to disclose figures about the machine's usage, Saldarini said the ATM in the tower "hasn't been well used. It's not heavily utilized."

The average ATM in the United States handles 6,367 transactions a month, said John Hall, spokesman for the American Bankers Association in Washington, D.C. There were 109,080 ATM machines in operation in the United States in 1994 and they handled 694.5 million transactions that year.

Hall said ATMs cost $20,000 to $50,000, depending on how many functions they are designed to handle.

Saldarini said First Union has two other ATMs near the tower: next to Center in the Square on the City Market; and in the lobby of the First Union building, about a block from the tower.

by CNB