Vehicles restricted access to driveways and the underground garage at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The jolt may have momentarily stopped the financial heart of the country but businessmen and women, especially around Massachusetts, were determined not to let Tuesday’s gruesome terrorist attacks prevent them from living their American lives.

Even as Boston’s Financial District was evacuated as a precautionary measure, many of those who did not have friends or loved ones in the areas attacked sought to continue the course of business. As explained by industry insiders, banks hold a special responsibility in maintaining calm as the public often looks to the industry for assurance the economy, and therefore their livelihoods, are in tact.

“I think the reaction of the state government up here was cautionary. The response here in Massachusetts was to close state offices and, from a cautionary standpoint, to close the Financial District because of the tall buildings. But for the most part, nearly every bank was open for the entire day yesterday,” said Daniel J. Forte, president of the Massachusetts Bankers Association.

“I think Americans are a stalwart people, a courageous people, and one way to stare down terrorism and these types of acts is to resume both our personal and business lives to as much normalcy as we can given the personal tragedies that have occurred – not to be changing our lifestyle because of it,” he said.

However, Tuesday’s events made it pretty well impossible for business as usual to occur without a few bumps.

The MBA went to a skeleton crew at around 1 p.m., leaving just Forte and Executive Vice President Kevin F. Kiley in the building, located in the Financial District. They both left at 3 p.m.

Although Forte was hesitant to speculate what was going through the minds of bankers across the state, he said the reaction was appropriate.

“Like any industry, you want your employees to feel comfortable in their work environment. What we did at the association was just like what any business would do, and I think many banks did the same thing. If there were individuals that had family members in New York or were overly distraught about the situation, immediately send them home,” he said.

‘Better Judgement’
Although banks such as FleetBoston Financial and Eastern Bank have locations in the Financial District that were shut down, all banks, by law, are required to have disaster recovery plans which allowed them to continue vital operations through other locations.

Eastern Bank had to close its offices located at 53 State St. and its branch on 101 Federal St., in the heart of the Financial District.

According to Joseph J. Bartolotta, spokesman for Eastern, about 100 employees were told to evacuate as a precautionary measure.

“We do have to shut down branches from time to time, such as in a snowstorm,” he said. “However, the only branch that did shut down was in the Financial District where many businesses, particularly those in high rises, shut down.”

Eastern’s corporate headquarters, commercial lending headquarters and various business lines such as the private asset management unit are located in the State Street office that closed. The majority of the employees from those offices went to other bank locations to continue work. “We had a handful of people who requested that they go home, a couple of people had friends or relatives that worked in lower Manhattan,” he said.

“We didn’t consider shutting down other branches, however, because in times like these, there’s a need to demonstrate that people have access to their cash,” said Bartolotta.

Massachusetts Division of Banks Commissioner Thomas J. Curry chose not to take any formal action in light of Tuesday’s events. “Basically, what we did here and what’s worked successfully in terms of a natural disaster, is utilized a state banking statute that was enacted after the Blizzard of ’78. Basically, it allows individual banks to make a determination based on their own observations of their own communities and branch networks to determine whether or not to keep the institution open completely or to selectively close branches,” he said.

Each bank has to notify the commissioner if it takes the option of shutting down a bank and must make a note of it in their records.

Curry said letting individual banks decide for themselves is really the best course of action. “The individual bankers are more familiar with their communities and the conditions that exist there and are able to make the better judgment.

“Basically, the only banks that took that option were those located in high-rise buildings for security reasons. There was never any impact on normal operations on the banks here in the commonwealth,” he said.

Elaine Zetes, public information assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, concurred, adding the bank never wavered from its normal operations. Despite police officers on duty at the entrances and vehicles parked across driveway entrances, there was no other action taken. Zetes said it was not immediately known if there were any unusually heavy draws on the bank.

“With all that happened on Tuesday, we were impressed that there was no interruption in service at the Federal Reserve,” said Bartolotta.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston maintained operations during its normal business hours both from its Boston office and an offsite emergency location, said Mark S. Zelermyer, spokesman for the FHLB. On Wednesday, the offices at One Financial Center operated on an emergency/weekend basis and nonessential employees were instructed to stay home.

Curry said it was important that all banks remained open. “As a regulatory agency, that is our number one concern: to maintain public confidence … to issue an edict from a government official can give mixed signals to the public,” said Curry.

Although the division has the ability to order state-chartered banks to close and the governor has the power to declare a state banking holiday, neither was “considered appropriate or even entertained [Tuesday],” said Curry.

Curry has served as commissioner for 16 years and does not remember a time even prior to his service that banks were ordered closed.

FleetBoston Financial was impacted both in New York and in Massachusetts. “Here in Massachusetts, shortly after the planes struck, we did suggest that all nonessential employees in office tower buildings return home,” said Alison Gibbs, a spokeswoman for Fleet. “A team of senior management, communications staff and other essential personnel remained at 100 Federal St. [Tuesday] and into [Tuesday] night.” Employees left 100 Federal, 1 Federal, 150 Federal, 175 Federal and other buildings in Providence, R.I.; Hartford, Conn.; and New York.

Some of Fleet’s brokerage unit Quick & Reilly facilities in lower Manhattan received some damage but thus far, no other Fleet properties were damaged, she said.

Unfortunately, Gibbs said, a small number of New York employees are currently unaccounted for. “We are making every effort to locate them and to reach out to their families,” she said.

Fleet’s Massachusetts’s branches closed an hour early on the day of the tragedy, but ATMs were in full operation throughout the state, she said.

The next day, business operations had returned to normal but human resources was making counseling available to employees and Fleet – along with Sovereign Bank, Citizens Bank, WCVB-TV and the American Red Cross – formed a partnership to raise funds for the relief effort.

Both Sovereign and Citizens have vowed to match funds donated at any of their locations. At press time, numerous other banks were forming relief efforts.

The public’s reaction to the tragedy hasn’t impacted banks all that much, according to industry insiders. There are a small percentage of people that feel better with money in their pockets, said Forte, but the demand for cash was similar to amounts withdrawn before a big winter storm.