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TEXT 4 

 

Electronic Savings 

 

We're all becoming familiar with electronic cash withdrawals, 

through Service-tills and the Rapid Cash tills inside branches. But what 

about electronic savings? Tom Frost, General Manager of Nat West's 

Business Development Division, makes the point that electronic cash 

handling is going to make all the difference to the next generation of bank 

savings schemes, and to the future shape of the major financial institutions 

themselves. One area in which the use of new technology will have parti-

cular effect will be the savings market. 

Frost emphasizes the wide range of options which Nat West offers 

the saver with a lump sum, and the ways in which new technology will in-

crease these options in the future. Using computers and word processors, 

Nat West is centralizing the administration of savings schemes. And of 

course, easy access to cash is still a key selling point with any savings 

scheme. Here Nat West will be using its Automatic Teller Machines net-

work to the full, giving customers the convenience of a 24-hour service ra-

ther than restricted opening hours. 

Centralization of the administration of savings schemes, and cash 

transfers that make it cheaper to gather and manage deposits, help the bank 

and its savers. But do savers know? Tom Frost thinks that they may not. I 

believe, he says, that some of this weakness stems from an emotional bar-

rier connected with the image of the banks. In the past, the clearing banks 

have offered a first-class current account service but have failed to sell 

themselves as an automatic home for savings as far as personal customers 

are concerned. It's as customers see that electronic banking means scope 

for a wider and better range of deposit schemes, as well as current account 

services, that savers will treat their local Nat West as a long – term home 

for their money.