U.K. banking experts as decision-makers: a historical view on banking technologies

This paper looks into Technological Investment Decision-Making (henceforth TIDM), and aims to surface the influence of the historical evolution of expertise in the banking sector on such decisions. In so doing, the paper underlines that, in each era, the technological decision-making activity is strongly linked to the views of dominant expert groups in the industry. The paper proposes that TIDM, as viewed historically, has been highly contingent to both technological developments in banking and subsequent developments in banking expertise.To illustrate this, it explores the relationship between (1) the technological developments in UK banking, (2) the evolution and distribution of expertise in the sector and (3) the respective evolution of TIDM. The paper adopts a historical perspective spanning from the end of the 19th Century until today, and identifies patterns that connect the 3 historical processes through direct, albeit hidden, relationships. It illustrates that, counter to popular belief, TIDM is a socially constructed process as opposed to a normative exercise. Ultimately, this paper shows that history recognises no optimal method for TIDM. Rigour and accuracy of execution do not appear to define success. On the contrary, in each era, the "right way" to perform TIDM has always been underpinned by the standpoints and beliefs of specialist practitioners who dominated the UK banking industry and by the received wisdom of a community of expert professionals, administrators and think tanks, dictating "realities" on the state of the economy, the role of banks and the value of technologies.