Nowadays, banks, banks everywhere, but hardly one will stay

It's just a bank. But when the navy blue MidAmerica Bank sign turned into a green National City sign this week, something changed.

I don't like change. Speaking of which, banks don't count change anymore, do they? I don't like that, either.

I didn't like Marshall Field's changing into Macy's; the farm behind my house turning into a subdivision; Dily Deli becoming a bank.

Banks, banks, banks. They're overrunning Naperville, then eating each other up. Prairie Bank and Trust turned into something generic; Oakbrook Bank turned into MB; LaSalle turned into Bank of America. NLSB turned into Harris and then at 95th Street and Route 59 there were two Harrises, then just one; now there's a FirstBank where Harris was. That same corner has a LaSalle (soon to be a Bank of America) and a Bank of America across the street from each other -- won't last long, you can bank on that.

At 95th Street and Route 59, there are more banks than cars -- particularly if you expand that "corner" to include a block or two each way. That's also one of the intersections with the most accidents each year. Any connection? You never know.

Throughout all of this, I smugly held on to my account at MidAmerica, for years a locally owned (Claredon Hills) bank. The branch that was in a little trailer at 95th Street and Book Road when we moved here, that we watched build a real building across the street, that we have banked at faithfully and have been grateful that it didn't change names the way so many others have. Will it continue to "pay a higher rate of attention?" Who knows?

Come to think of it, there's a new National City just a couple of blocks from my old MidAmerica. Hmm.

Yesterday, our bank card became green and our bank became National City.

It's nothing personal. It could be the best bank on the planet, I have no idea. But we liked MidAmerica. In general, I liked it better when towns had their own banks.

I grew up banking at Golf Mill State Bank -- a bank named after a shopping center. When I went to college, I thought the local bank -- Valley National -- was so cool because they had bank cards with which you could withdraw money from a machine! Yes, that was a long time ago and we don't have rotary-dial phones anymore either. I get that.

But I really don't get why bigger banks are better or why (when apparently people don't save their money any more) we have more banks than ever. Does this make cents?

We got a nice phone call a few weeks ago about the bank changing its name and how it won't affect our lives or our banking. That was followed by a snail-mail letter explaining how we have to change our routing numbers if we do any online bill paying, and then received new bank cards -- worst of all with new PINs. Isn't that change?

Nothing is small and personal anymore. We don't live in Bedford Falls or bank at the Bailey Building & Loan. But does the entire country have to bank at approximately four banks? We could switch banks, I guess -- and still might -- but most likely that bank will be bought out soon afterward. The "Wal-Mart-ization" of banking.

Forbes.com, in a story about the sale of MidAmerica to National City, noted that in Illinois there are a "large number of small, independent banks, and strong competition makes it difficult for large out-of-town players to start a branch network from scratch, making the few established local chains like MidAmerica attractive acquisition targets."

Well, buying stuff helps the economy, they say. I'm just not sure it helps banks.