Let B(X) denote the Banach algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Banach space X. Let t be an element of B(X), and let edenote the identity operator on X. Since the earliest days of the theory of Banach algebras, ithas been understood that the natural setting within which to study spectral properties of t is the Banach algebra B(X), or perhaps a closed subalgebra of B(X) containing t and e. The effective application of this method to a given class of operators depends upon first translating the data into terms involving only the Banach algebra structure of B(X) without reference to the underlying space X. In particular, the appropriate topology is the norm topology in B(X) given by the usual operator norm. Theorem 1 carries out this translation for the class of compact operators t. It is proved that if t is compact, then multiplication by t is a compact linear operator on the closed subalgebra of B(X) consisting of operators that commute with t.