KPMG Peat Marwick's survey of chief executives also turned up some interesting information outside the realm of compliance.
Bank CEOs surveyed are divided on whether Congress should legislate a solution to the disparity in rates banks and thrifts will pay for deposit insurance by yearend. While 51% oppose congressional action, 49% favor it.
Surprisingly, 21% of bank CEOs were in favor of merging the bank and thrift insurance funds.
Eighty percent of the respondents said they support consolidation of the federal regulatory agencies, but only 60% said it would ease their compliance burden. Nearly nine in 10 favored merging the Comptroller of the Currency's Office and the Office of Thrift Supervision.
Most banks surveyed don't plan to use the new interstate banking law to acquire institutions in distant states.
About three-fourths of respondents are most interested in buying banks within their own state borders. Half might acquire banks in neighboring states, but less than a fifth said they would go farther.
Fifty percent of those surveyed predicted the number of financial institutions will be halved - from 13,000 to between 6,000 and 9,000 - by the year 2000.
Only half of those surveyed use data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to identify potential customers for marketing. Even less - 44% - compare their HMDA data to competitors.
