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Like many another U.S. bank, New York's Bankers Trust Co. (assets: $1.8 billion) has found it harder & harder to get enough employees for its 13 offices. Fewer young people are entering banking, chiefly because they can make more money elsewhere. This week Bankers Trust tried a different attack on the employment problem. It merged with Commercial National Bank & Trust Co. (assets: $222 million) and thus stepped up from ninth to eighth largest commercial bank in the U.S. Said Bankers Trust President S. Sloan Colt: "The value of this acquisition was based less on the size than on the highly qualified staff [33 officers and nearly 300 employees] we will acquire in the face of the current manpower shortage."

In line with the trend towards bank mergers (92 in 1950), the board of directors of St. Louis' Mercantile-Commerce Bank & Trust Co. (assets: $413 million) last week voted to merge with the Mississippi Valley Trust Co. (assets: $250 million). The new bank will be known as the Mercantile Trust Co., will be the largest bank between Chicago and the Pacific Coast.

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