I have been going through old bank statements and am struck by the wastefulness of some of them. (We still receive paper statements because one of the people in our household prefers them to electronic statements.)
In 2007, Washington Mutual's statements were still being printed on heavy US-letter stock, single-sided (the reverse is pre-printed with an account-reconciliation form and various regulations, in light blue). There is a lot of blank space on each page — each statement is typically three pages long, and the content could easily have been presented on a single side. The postage for three pages would have been the same as for one at that time (each sheet weighs 0.18 oz and the first ounce is a single price), but obviously the amount of paper must have made a difference to the bank's costs. Washington Mutual was seized by the U.S. Government in the Fall of 2008
I wonder it there is any correlation between the material expenses of a bank and its survival in a stressful economy. Probably those costs approach zero in comparison with employee bonuses, but I wonder if extravagance in materials is a good predictor of extravagance in other areas.