In Digital We Trust: The computerisation of retail finance in Western Europe and North America

Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo and Maixe-Altes, J. Carles and Thomes, Paul (2010): In Digital We Trust: The computerisation of retail finance in Western Europe and North America. Forthcoming in: Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives (January 2011): pp. 3-14.

Abstract

This paper tells of the contents of a forthcoming volume, which offers a new and original approach to the study of technological change in retail finance. Most business history studies of businesses for the last 50 years note the emergence of computers and computer applications, but they do not analyze their role in shaping business practices and organizations. In this book we look directly at the processes of mechanisation and computerisation of retail financial services, throughout the 20th Century while articulating an international comparison. We bring together young, well established and independent historians, who come from different traditions (that is, economic, business, accounting, geography and political histories as well as historians of technology). Contributors look at stand alone and comparative case studies from different parts of the world (namely Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Mexico and the USA). The outcome is a rich survey of the broad literature examining different aspects of the technological and business histories of retail financial markets from a variety of perspectives.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Retail finance, automation, Western Europe (Germany, UK, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden), North America (USA, Mexico)
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N8 - Micro-Business History; N - Economic History > N2 - Financial Markets and Institutions; L - Industrial Organization > L6 - Industry Studies: Manufacturing > L63 - Microelectronics ; Computers ; Communications Equipment

References

Ballarín, E. (1985). Estrategias Competitivas para la Banca. Barcelona, Ariel.

Bátiz-Lazo, B. and R. J. K. Reid (2010). "The Development of Cash Dispensing Technology in the UK." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32(4).

Bátiz-Lazo, B. and P. Wardley (2007). "Banking on Change: Information Systems and Technologies in UK High Street Banking, 1919-1969." Financial History Review 14(2): 177-205.

Bátiz-Lazo, B. and D. Wood (1999). "Management of Core Capabilities in Mexican and European Banks." International Journal of Service Industry Management (Special issue on Service Management in Latin America) 10(5): 430-48.

Bátiz-Lazo, B. and D. Wood (2003). "Strategy, Competition and Diversification in European and Mexican Banking." International Journal of Bank Marketing 21(4&5): 2002-16.

Booth, A. E. (2007). The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the U.K. and U.S.A. since 1950. Basingstoke, Palgrave.

Campbell-Kelly, M. (1992). "Large-scale data processing in the Prudential, 1850-1930." Accounting, Business and Financial History 2(2): 117-39.

Campbell-Kelly, M. (1998). "Data Processing and Technological Change: The Post Office Savings Bank, 1861-1930." Technology & Culture 39(1): 1-32.

Canals, J. (1997). Universal Banking. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Chandler, A. D. (2001). Inventing the Electronic Century. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press.

Chandler, A. D. and J. W. Cortada (2000). A Nation Transformed by Information. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Cortada, J. W. (2006). The Digital Hand, Vol. 2. New York, Oxford University Press.

Fincham, R., J. Fleck, et al. (1994). Expertise and Innovation: Information technology strategies in the financial services sector. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Fisher, A. W. and J. L. McKenney (1993). "The Development of the ERMA Banking System: Lessons from History." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 15(1): 44-57.

Gardener, E. P. M. and P. Molyneux (1990). Changes in Western European Banking. London, Unwin & Hyman.

Guerriero Wilson, R. (2008). "‘The machine should fit the work’: Organisation and Method and British approaches to new technology in business." History and Technology 24(4): 321-333.

Hoschka, T. C. (1993). Cross-border Entry in European Financial Services: Determinants, Regulation and the Impact of Competition. Oxford, St Martin's Press.

McKenney, J. L. (1995). "Developing a Common Machine Language for Banking: The ABA Technical Subcommittee Story." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 17(4): 61-75.

McKenzie, D. (2005). An Engine, not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Meyer, D. R. (2006). Network Machinist. Baltimore, MD, John Hopkins University Press.

Pinch, T. and R. Swedberg (2008). Living in a Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Walter, I. (1997). "Universal Banking: A Shareholder Value Perspective." European Management Journal 5(4): 344-60.

Yates, J. (1989). Control through Communcation: The Rise of System in American Management. Baltimore and London, The John Hopkins University Press.

Yates, J. (2005). Structuring the Information Age. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press.