Electronic Banking Comes to Norwood-This Day In Norwood History-August 9, 1962

Boston Ledger Now Mere Memory As Automation Invades Banking Scene

Not long ago—not even long enough to be a strain on the memory—a bank’s bookkeeping was done by a clerk using a Boston Ledger and a quill pen. The major skills required of a bank bookkeeper were good, clear penmanship and the ability to add and subtract accurately.

Whatever happened to the so-called “Boston Ledger?” These huge ledger books, used by banks for so many years in which to do ail of their bookkeeping by hand, have disappeared from the banking scene, along with the high stools and even higher desks that were standard bank bookkeeper’s equipment. And old-timers in the banking business, when asked ’about the fate of these bulky ledgers, show hardly a trace of nostalgia in their reply.

On a busy day, a bank bookkeeper might have had to make as many as 700 entries a day in his Boston Ledger. That pace was a far cry from the needs of modern-day banking. In 1961, for example, over 14,000,000,000 (fourteen billion) checks were written by the people of the United States! This fantastic growth in the use of checks has been shared by all commercial banks, Including Norfolk County Trust Company, which alone handled several million checks for its customers last year. This rapid growth in the popularity of Its checking accounts led, in fact, to a major move which brings to Norfolk County Trust’s checking account customers the services of incredibly high-speed electronic data processing equipment that “reads, sorts, translates and posts” checks and deposits to accounts faster than the human eye can follow.

Breath-Taking Speed

To give a small idea of the breath-taking speed at which the equipment operates, one unit of the system—the “reader-sorter”—can read and sort in less than one minute more transactions than could be handled by a bookkeeper in a whole day In the era of the Boston Ledger.

The complete electronic data processing system consists of a reader-sorter, a computer, and a high-speed printer. The reader-sorter reads all checks and deposits and sorts them Into proper order at great speed. The computer “remembers” the present balance of each account in-’the bank and rapidly records each item of each day’s activity. The highspeed printer “translates” electronic impulses into figures and provides a readable record of each depositor’s account.

An essential part of this system is the information printed on deposit slips and across the bottom of each check-in “magnetic” ink. The magnetic character of the special ink .makes it possible for the encoded information to be picked up, read, sorted and posted to the proper account by the electronic “brains” of the machines. A part of this information is printed in magnetic ink on the checks and deposit slips before the customer receives these forms; other information, such as the amount of the check, is imprinted on the check by the bank when It receives the check or deposit slip.

Greater Accuracy According to Elmer O. Cappers, president of Norfolk bounty Trust Company, the bank has studied various automation equipment for some time* “While we realize adoption of any type of automation will represent., to our customers some change, principally in the appearance of checks and deposit! slips,” Mr. Cappers commented, “we have tried to keep the changes to a minimum and to avoid any sudden transition that might be displeasing to our customers.“

Greater accuracy In all information recorded is an important aspect of Norfolk’s iew electronic system. Greater accuracy is possible because the equipment is not subject to human distractions, and the various imputations are made automatically by this highly reliable machinery.

Mr. Cappers points out, with the area’s future banking needs in mind, that the versatile equipment can perform many jobs (Other than the processing of checks and deposits. “In the coming years,” he says, “we hope to be able to offer out customers many new services—perhaps some not even thought of today. This equipment will enable us to provide Norfolk County Trust’s customers with every service available from any banking institution.”

The prompt, efficient service this electronic equipment makes possible today . . . and the broad vistas it brings into view for tomorrow . . . make the days of the Boston Ledger seem long ago, indeed.

(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)