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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: |
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with computer equipment that very quickly goes out of date, is hugely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.
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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1967 Racing
to be first: The World’s first cash machine to use a plastic card and PIN… You can read
more here: |
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.
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: |
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.
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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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 |
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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1918
to 1969 Bucking
the trend… Operating a full national network from a Head Office OUTSIDE London You can read
more here: |
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.
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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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1968 First
to feel the crunch? You can read
more here: |
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 thirty… |
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