Question

In 1968 the Worcester Five Cent Savings Bank hired Ronald Haselton to be its new president and chief executive officer. One thing that Haselton did was change the name of the bank to Consumers Savings Bank. What else did Haselton do that later was considered one of the biggest innovations in the banking industry in the 20th century?

Answer 1

Two of the most influential innovations in banking can be traced to the Haselton brothers of New England. When Ronald Haselton, 50, president and chief executive officer of the Consumer Savings Bank in Worcester, Mass., developed and put into effect the NOW account, the banking community predicted a disaster.

But 10 years later, NOW, or negotiable order of withdrawal, accounts have become a nationwide banking product. Starting today, as part of a general deregulation of the banking industry, limitations on NOW account interest levels will be lifted.

In Maine, Wallace A. Haselton, 60, president and chief executive of the Depositors Corporation, served on the committee that recommended allowing bank holding companies from other states to make acquisitions in Maine, if the states in which they were situated passed similar reciprocity laws.

The law passed in Maine, and Delaware and Alaska have also enacted such laws. And recently, so did New York and Massachusetts, with Wallace Haselton actively promoting passage in both those states.

He was educated at Boston University and the University of North Carolina, joining Depositors Trust in 1964. Ronald Haselton went into banking after high school while working his way through Northeastern University in Boston, from which he was graduated cum laude.