PASSING OF THE BANK CLERK

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1929, Page 3

PASSING OF THE BANK CLERK

INFALLIBLE MACHINES. - - . LONDON, .May .9. Clerical .work in all the great banks of the country is to lie .reduced to a minimum by the introdutcioii of wonderful accountancy machines, wlr h, it is claimed, cannot make a mistake. Two' of the great British hanking corporations have already decided on complete mechanisation of their accountancy systems (says the “Daily Express ”), and it is practically cert'tin that the rest of the “Big Five” will follow suit in the immediate future. Every stage of clerical work, from Hie moment a customer presents a cheque to the filial balancing df the bank’s general -ledger, is now being turned over to various types ol new machines. When the system is univer. sally adopted—and banking' experts are unanimous Hint this is bound Lo liapuon -the bank clerks oi past genora-i-)11s will disappear, and machine'hands' will lake their places.

ROBOT CLERKS. The now machines arc so elficieiiL a in! fool-proof that the .Midland Rank is gradually' installing them in all it* branches, and the Westminster Rank has them' in operation at its Oxfon street (London), Leicester, and Manchester Corn Exchange offices, and has placed an order for Cloo,ooo worth c‘ the machines to he installed in its branches throughout the country. Those robot- bank clerks have been found to be infallible. A customer’s balance is automatically calculate I and printed by the machines as each item is entered, and it is impossih! • for an overdraft to escape attention! As soon as the account is overdrawn, the machine automatically locks itself, and the amount of tin* deficit i* printed in red ink when the lock is released. liiunk clerks are .naturally apprehensive. The introduction of the new machines opens up the prospector wholesale unemployment. “Two girls easily perform the work of five or six men with the hi\f;> of the machine,” said the secretary of theBank Officers’ Guild, in an interview. ‘•We cannot tel! what will happen when mechanisation is general.” ELIMINATE ERROR. “The machines are wonderful. I was going to say that they are nearly human, hut in point of fact they are super-human. They eliminate the human element of error. They simply cannot make mistakes. The Midland Bank already lias a considerable surplus of staff as a result of the adoption of mechanical methods.

It lias always been a tradition that once a man was appointed, to the staff of a hank lie was never dismissed except for some serious cause. We cannot say whether that will .cpiitin,u.e to he the ease. We are watching developments with, anxiety.”

The change over at the J(.Weistmilister Bank is .said to be the most comnlete mechanisation, ever attempted by any business organisation in the world. The new system frees cashiers of much of the routine work- with which tuey wore formerly- burdened, •Hid leaves them free .to give their individual . attention .to customers.

The old-fashioned pass book will soon be a relic of the past. Customers will be provided instead with :i leather-bound, loose-leaf book, and a sheet setting out a statement of their accounts will he issued daily, weekly, or monthly, or as required.