ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on research into the role the mechanization and automation of practices within retail fi nancial intermediaries aiming to contest bank markets. The fi nancial service organizations, which are the topic of this chapter, were originally established as independent providers but all were guided by a common principle. This unifying concept dates to 1810 when the fi rst “savings” bank was established in Ruthwell, Scotland (Horne 1947: 34). Savings banks grew throughout the United Kingdom and continental Europe. A change in government policy in the UK led to the amalgamation of independent savings banks into a single entity, which was fl oated in the Stock Exchange in 1986. It then merged with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to create the Lloyds TSB Group. Meanwhile in Spain, regulatory change during the 1980s positioned savings banks on the same footing as commercial banks while allowing individual savings banks to remain independent and maintain unique features of their corporate governance (including its philanthropic orientation). By the end of the twentieth century, Spanish savings banks had captured half the market for retail deposits and successfully contested many other markets that had been dominated by commercial banks.
