Martins Bank is first
– or almost first – with a number
of banking services and technologies, which is not bad going, when you
consider the competition from the other major banks in the UK. On this page we look at some of these
“firsts”, and if you would like to know more about any of them in particular,
simply click on the leaflet image at the beginning of each section…

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1959
The
curse of being first…
First to use a computer to process day to day banking transactions
You can read
more here:

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Being first to do something does have
its drawbacks. Martins themselves
would surely have acknowledged that having been first to use a computer soon
left them lagging behind, as the other banks also explored possibilities and
faster, more capable computers and equipment became available. This problem
affects many banks well into the 1990s - fitting out an entire branch network
with computer equipment that very quickly goes out of date, is hugely
expensive – consequently the shabby looking computer terminals you might have
seen in YOUR bank look like that because they are being used way beyond their
expected shelf life. Repair companies
make a fortune by trying to keep these systems running, and despite advances
in computer software, programs still need to be written in a way that the
older equipment can still understand.
How Martins actually achieves a first with
computers is a fascinating story, and we are grateful to our colleague Peter
Hayes who actually worked on Pegasus, the computer shown above – for telling
us about it. Martins’ tradition of being first with things is spoiled on home
territory, when another bank dares to open the country’s first drive-in
branch in Liverpool itself. Those in
charge at Martins are beside themselves with rage, and determined not only to
open a better one, but to immediately be first in banking to introduce
something else – in fact ANYTHING else, it doesn’t really matter what. A board meeting is held and someone
suggests computers – the fight back begins, and results in the arrival of
Pegasus. The winged horse is, however,
not it all it is cracked up to be, and you can read more about this, and
Peter Hayes’ involvement with the computer on our Pegasus II page.
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1959
Racing
to be first:
The World’s first cash machine to use a plastic card and PIN…
You can read
more here:

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Barclays and Martins are neck and neck
in the race to bring us the world’s first cash machine. That the race is won
by Barclays, five months ahead of its rival is still seen as no setback at
all by Martins, who proudly promote their
machine as the first cash machine in the North of England. There is,
however an even bigger claim to fame here - the Barclays machine is at first
operated by special cheques dotted with holes which have to be matched onto
pins inside a drawer. Martins is first
to use a plastic card and a personal identification number together.

Despite the
two banks using different manufacturers, the workings of the two machines are
surprisingly similar. The customer is
issued with a stock of special chemical cheques or plastic cards and a code
number. Used together, these will
unlock a drawer providing access to a small pack containing ten one-pound
notes. Perhaps a clumsy system
compared to what we have to day, but nevertheless it was ground-breaking for the
time it was introduced. We will have
to wait at least another twenty years for anything that will resemble a more
electronic system, from any of the banks… Barclays’ later attempts produce a
credible ATM that is a cross between a one-armed bandit and a cash machine,
where customers’ instructions appear behind a window courtesy of a large
roller that spins backwards or forwards to the relevant passage of text. Sometimes the roller gets stuck or only
reveals part of the instructions through the window. Happy days!
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1959
First with innovation
The first drive-in bank?
You can read
more here:

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This is one of Martins’ most
successful (and certainly most well publicised) firsts. It is also one that
really hasn’t been seen much since.
It’s amazing what rivalry can achieve – one of the Bank’s competitors
dares to open a drive-in branch in Liverpool (what cheek!) and Martins
retaliates by becoming the first Bank to use a computer to process daily
work. It also opens a lavish drive-in Bank in Leicester, AND engages the
services of the Minister for Transport himself to open it! There is no doubt, that by these actions,
and as the leader of the “small six” Banks, Martins wants its customers and
its competitors to take it seriously.
It is a shame that this original drive-in bank did
not fully catch on, despite lasting until the late 1980s. Banks still
experimented with the idea, but with payment methods developing at a more
rapid pace, the cash machine put paid to ideas of any large-scale development
of drive-ins. In the high-tech gadget
filled twenty-first century, despite our willingness to queue in our cars for
ages at any number of cardboard fast food outlets, we don’t seem to need the
novelty and excitement that captured first Leicester, and later Epsom – using
a large, purpose built Drive-In Bank.
Certainly much more than an experiment, banking with Martins by car is
a popular thing to do over the ten year period 1959-1969, and thanks to
Barclays, it survives until the late 1980s…
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1959
Unwaith eto, diolch yn fawr?
First UK bank to issue English/Welsh bilingual stationery…
You can read
more here:

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With branches in both North and
South Wales, Martins takes an active interest in the culture of Wales, and takes
seriously the matter of employing managers and staff who can speak both Welsh
and English. This poster from 1960
shows the Bank’s involvement in the annual Eisteddfod, and in 1965, Cardiff
Branch seizes the initiative and produces the Uk’s first bilingual cheques…

 Through Cardiff Branch, the Bank
has achieved another FIRST with the issue of the first bilingual cheques in Britain.
The cheques, each printed in both English and Welsh, are drawn on an account
opened by the Urdd movement for the Urdd National Eisteddfod, being held this
year in Cardiff. The Movement is a
youth organisation, founded in 1922 to foster, among other things, an
interest in Wales and its culture, and the Urdd National Eisteddfod is to the
young people of Wales, what the National Eisteddfod is to the adults. Among the Movement’s patrons is the Lord
Lieutenant of Glamorgan, Sir Cennydd Traherne, T.D., of
our South Western Board.


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1960
First service…
First to operate a sub branch
on the Centre Court at Wimbledon…
Click HERE to visit Martins Bank’s
Centre Court sub-Branch
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Martins Bank’s Branches can not only
be found in practically every town, but also in a number of RAF stations, a
hospital, the British Wool Marketing Board, the NORGAS Building, an abattoir,
universities and numerous cattle markets.

Taking banking to the workplace
is a popular move, and leads to the building of a permanent branch at the Great
Yorkshire Show Ground. Around the country, Martins serves the workers at
Aylesford Paper Mills near Maidstone, and at many other locations including,
industrial estates, a colliery, a corn exchange, ICI Wilton Works, and
railway stations. The Bank also enjoys many prime sites in well to do parts
of London. None, however, is a more prestigious, or
perhaps strange choice for a branch location than the Centre Court at
Wimbledon – a top prize indeed for any bank.
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1960s
First
to make a splash…
Leading an advertising revolution
You can read
more here:

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Martins Bank is quick
to recognise – and take seriously – the potential savings and borrowing
powers of young people. Until the
advent of the 1960s teenager with surplus cash to spend, Martins’ advertising
is distinctly – yet beautifully – plain.
In keeping with the Bank’s tradition of commissioning fine artists,
the copy from the 1940s and 1950s consists almost exclusively of grey images,
usually sketch drawings of British towns, cities and landmarks. The idea, is that people will associate the
Bank with the fine traditions of the places where it trades, and is also a
throwback to the times of the many small local banks that eventually came
together to form Martins itself.
Martins realises that young people, particularly those in work, but
importantly those in further and higher education have, or will soon have,
power over their own money, and the ability to save and borrow responsibly.
Almost overnight, the Harold Wilson generation causes a major rethink of the
Bank’s advertising policy, and with it, another first – stylish ads,
evocative of the moment, each with a clear message – the CUSTOMER is king, in
control of his or her own finances, and there is no better bank than Martins
to help them achieve what they wanted in life. Sheer genius.
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1918
to 1969
Bucking
the trend…
Operating a full national network from a Head Office OUTSIDE London
You can read
more here:

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The amalgamation in 1928 of the Bank of Liverpool
and Martins with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank sparks the exponential
growth of the new Martins Bank – a bank that is proud to be based in
Liverpool, NOT London.

Opulence, decadence, and a strong
defiance of a financial system that automatically assumes “London-centric” is
the only option for a financial institution, Martins has these qualities in
abundance, and demonstrates them to the full in the construction of what is
still the most lavish and ostentatious bank building ever seen in this
country.

To top it all, Martins’ wonderful and
breath-taking Head Office at 4 Water Street Liverpool, couldn’t be further
away from London, the traditional centre of British Banking. Although Martins
has splendid and large premises at 68 Lombard Street London, the building is
always known as London District Office, and nothing more. It is indeed a sad
moment indeed, when Martins merges with Barclays, and Liverpool becomes just
another outpost.
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1948
The
Bank on Wheels…
… launches an entire FLEET of mobile
branches!
You can read
more here:

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Now here’s an idea that’s gone round the block a
few times and come around again: - taking the bank to the customer – “another
way” to bank – “now there’s a thought…” Today’s mobile banks,
converted from those smaller town and city buses, bear little resemblance to
their 1948 counterparts, but still fulfil more or less the same role. Today
however, there is also the sheer cheek of expecting customer loyalty from
those whose permanent branch you took away in the first place!

Today’s modern vehicles seem to lack the charm of
the originals, which in Martins’ day have to be towed by land rovers, and
evoke the nostalgic suggestion of a weekend’s caravanning in Snowdonia. At the height of what Martins refers to as
“Show Season”, a fleet of six mobile caravans tours England Wales Scotland,
the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, attending every kind of
agricultural, sporting and industrial show. A complicated arrangement of
preferred hotels and flower shops means that Martins Bank often wins awards
for the presentation of its mobile caravans at the eighty or shows they
attend each year. There are times when
a mobile branch is not appropriate, so a trade stand is used instead. The mobile caravans are also used to bring
banking to local housing estates, and in the late 1960s a prefabricated
branch is used to attract customers in areas where a new branch of the Bank
is currently being constructed.
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1968
First
to feel the crunch?
You can read
more here:

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There have been a number of theories
as to why Martins Bank, at the height of its success, merges with Barclays,
not least that the Bank of England is made nervous the rapid expansion of
Martins Bank and by its lavish spending on new branches and services.
It could well be, that Martins’ very
success, has itself become a heavy weight around the Bank’s neck: Servicing the lending requirements of such
major customers as a pools company, an airline and a world renowned shipping
line, often sends Martins to other banks to borrow money – a compelling
argument, perhaps, for a merger?

By the second
decade of the twenty-first Century, Martins Bank’s network of 730 branches) at
time of merger 1969) is reduced to fewer than fifty…
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