By contrast, Norwest, which aggressively pushes traditional retail products, such as mortgages and consumer loans, through a huge network of non-bank offices as well as bank branches, has a markedly different culture from Wells Fargo's.
Second Harvest, the largest food-bank network in the country, says that about half its 183 food-distribution centers have reported increased demand over the past year.
On the back of lending to budding entrepreneurs like Mr Chrek Heang, ACLEDA had the largest retail-bank network in the country within ten years of its launch.
The World Bank has a tele-medicine network, which conveys medical findings in the United States to hospitals in the farther reaches of Latin America.
ECONOMIST: Development banks in Latin America: Fading brands | The
When Banespa is privatised, any buyer will gain a large and very liquid bank with a well-sited network of more than 550 branches in Sao Paulo state, Brazil's biggest financial and business market, says Paulo Zaghen, the central-bank director in charge of rescuing state banks.
In 2009, a report prepared for the Inter-American Development Bank found that Brazilians receiving the Globo TV -- the country's biggest television network, and a major producer of telenovelas -- signal had a lower birth rates and a greater incidence of divorce than areas which had no signal.
Earlier this year, Citigroup bought a controlling stake in KorAm Bank, which increased its private-banking network there from a dozen branches to over 200, while Standard Chartered last month opened its first branch in Seoul dedicated to private banking.
The great unknown, at least from a financial standpoint, is whether all these accolades and millions of off-network fans will lead to appreciable sums of money in the bank.
In France, Switzerland, Finland and the Czech Republic, for example, Internet information services packaged for the thin-pipe network and small phone displays allow users to access their bank records, Internet mail and information services such as horoscopes, news and stock quotes.
In 1993 the People's Bank of Hainan decided to establish a provincial financial-data network using a credit card with a microchip.
As the network of participating countries grows, "it may be that 'bank-secrecy' jurisdictions feel increasing pressure to move toward a growing international consensus on information exchange, " Mr. West added.
Su Casita also has a network of branch offices where borrowers can pay in cash--few Mexicans have bank accounts--and Su Casita employees can go knock on doors if a payment is late.
As a result, every type of company involved with a debit card transaction, from the middle-man payment processing service to the company that owns the processing network to the bank that issues the card stands to have reduced revenue than they would have had otherwise.
With his backroom savvy, copious network and tidy bank balance, he is also a master of Thailand's old-style politicking.
There a clearinghouse network allows electronic settlement of all plastic-money transactions for any type of card or issuing bank.
Network's "Forbes Celebrity 100: Who Made Bank" and the Louisville Courier-Journal.
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