Wider duties for BayBanks' systems chief.

Lindsey C. Lawrence has attached a new line to her growing list of responsibilities at BayBanks Inc.

The 56-year-old president and chief operating officer of BayBanks' technology unit, BayBanks Systems Inc., has added the title of chief executive officer of the unit, effective immediately.

She replaces Donald L. Isaacs, who will fill a newly created vice chairmanship of the parent holding company.

With the new position, Ms. Lawrence adds marketing and advertising duties to the technical and operational responsibilities she already held.

While allowing that her position will pull her in several directions, Ms. Lawrence said her experience has prepared her to handle the various facets of her expanded job in the early 1960s, as a recent Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, she gained technical experience as a computer programmer.

After leaving the workplace for several years in the 1970s to raise her family, Ms. Lawrence changed careers by accepting a marketing position at a Boston-based competitor of BayBanks.

"It's an odd background," said Ms. Lawrence, "But it does son of uniquely get me into this bimodal job, which is both marketing and technology."

BayBanks Systems is responsible for a number of consumer banking products, and none so integral to the retail banking operations as the automated teller machine.

Since joining BayBanks in 198t as a product manager, Ms. Lawrence has watched a fledgling ATM program grow into one of the largest such networks in the country, and a cornerstone of the Massachusetts bank's retail business.

With more than 1,000 ATMs and a proprietary network known as Xpress 24, the $10 billion-asset bank has a larger electronic banking presence than many much bigger financial institutions.

The main challenge of Ms. Lawrence's new position is to expand upon the successes of the ATM program. Specifically, she will encourage BayBanks' technology-friendly depositors to use new forms of electronic banking.

In the short term, BayBanks will promote the option of using the BayBanks ATM card at the point Of sale. Experts said the utility of that debit card Will expand dramatically as the NYCE electronic banking network - which BayBanks co-owns with several other northeastern banks -- extends its point of sale reach.

Another immediate marketing priority is the bank's account linkage product, which enables customers to transfer funds electronically between heretofore unrelated accounts.

Such a service would, for example, enable parents to electronically move money into a son's or daughter's account using an ordinary ATM.

Beyond these offerings, Ms. Lawrence envisions forays into home banking and smart cards in the coming years.

However, while she is eager to see each of these products develop, she said BayBanks is not likely to play a major pioneering role.

Considering the bank's asset size, ranking only 591h in the United States, Ms. Lawrence said it "will probably not spend a lot of money on piloting concepts, and I will wait and watch to see something that I know consumers are into using" before creating and marketing a product.

"When we've got a critical mass of customers, we'll jump on it [a new service or product], and we'll jump on it big."

In home banking and smart cards, BayBanks will rely on the international card associations and the regional network, NYCE, to carry much of the development burden.

Ms. Lawrence said BayBanks is "newly satisfied" with the type of strategic thinking that is going on at NYCE. She said she expects some significant new services to hail from the network in the coming years.

NYCE, which is operated by the New York Switch Corp. of Hackensack, N.J., is expected to announce in the next few weeks a new brand name and several strategic initiatives springing from its recent merger with New England's Yankee 24 network.

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