With many certificate rates nearing those paid on passbook accounts, many savers preferred the liquidity of passbook accounts.

Mr. Baum says they would have made more money by closing the place in the early 1980's and putting their money in a passbook account.

At the end of last year, Jamaica had $1.2 billion in deposits, of which $576 million, or 47 percent, were in old-fashioned passbook accounts.

To Sophie, saving for old age meant passbook accounts - six of them - and Government bonds.

About half of his customers do not use the automated teller machines, while about half still have passbook accounts.

Mr. Mason said travelers "can open a passbook account in some dinky, isolated town; then, you'll have to go back there to get it."

They'll be paying the wrong interest rates on mortgages or passbook accounts.

Raising interest rates on money market accounts could cause a shift out of passbook accounts with no net deposit gain to the bank, only an increase in its interest cost.

Mr. Bianchini was called to explain a complex series of personal transactions in which he borrowed $85,000 from a credit union just before it closed, then later used his frozen passbook accounts to pay off the loan.

Separate rules apply to passbook accounts from which pre-authorized transfers are drawn.