CHICAGO – Media sources report that a recent survey of 1,000 adults by the Gallup opinion research firm has found that 60% of bank customers surveyed use their bank branches at least two or three times per month, while only 48% of bank customers use their ATMs as often. Some bank officials have questioned the data because, they said, it does not match what they are seeing in their own branches and at their own ATMs. However, others have said the survey is significant since ATMs first came into widespread use as a means of cutting down banking customers' use of branches, which have often been seen as more expensive. A few bank officials have gone as far as to point to the survey as proof that branches are coming back into favor as "platforms" from which to market customers the increasing number and variety of bank services. The media sources pointed out that several banks in the Chicago area and other parts of the Midwest have spent significant amounts of money on renovating their branches to reflect the new marketing paradigm or have built new ones.