GCSE ICT/ICT and Banks

Banks have been heavy users of ICT for a long time. From the introduction of MICR [1] 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?

$Workers\ Needed={\frac {Minutes\ work\ needed}{Minutes\ in\ a\ working\ day}}$

$Workers\ Needed={\frac {5,000,000}{500}}={\frac {50,000}{5}}=10,000$

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