View source for GCSE ICT/ICT and Banks

Banks have been heavy users of ICT for a long time.  From the introduction of MICR [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MICR] in the 1950's through to the current push for 'Chip and PIN'.

The reason for this enthusiasm for new technology is to keep costs down.  A simple estimate of the number of transactions that occur daily in the UK will explain why automation is essential!

How many people have bank accounts? - estimate 1/3 of the population...
some 20 million people.

How often do they use their accounts? 
this is a for bill payments, holes in the wall transactions, debit cards, etc.
- estimate every other day...
so 10 million transactions per day.

How long does it take to handle a transaction? guess 30 seconds of human work...
so 5 million minutes of work per day.

How many transactions could a worker handle in a day? based on an 8 hour day...
8 hours = 480 minutes (roughly 500 minutes...)

So how many workers would be needed to keep up with these transactions?

<math>Workers \ Needed = \frac {Minutes \ work \ needed} {Minutes \ in \ a \ working \ day}</math>

<math>Workers \ Needed = \frac {5,000,000} {500} = \frac {50,000} {5} = 10,000 </math>

So around an additional 10,000 workers would be required - and these figures are underestimates.

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