La opción tecnológica de las cajas de ahorro españolas antes de Internet, circa 1950-1995

Technical advances in retail banking have had profound repercussions for the competitiveness of individual firms and for the sector as a whole. This paper looks at the role played by new technological resources within the context of organizational change and the products and services offered by Spanish savings banks. These entities constitute an excellent case study, given that they have been incorporating technology intensively, particularly since the 1960’s. In the case in question, persistence had little influence on the process of technological change. However, the mechanization of operations, the computerization of administrative systems and the establishment of data transfer networks were all exceptional and premature in the way in which they developed. It was the banking industry, prior to other sectors that stimulated the demand for certain technologies, which was somewhat idiosyncratic when compared to other countries.