Dave Miller: Catching on and catching up

When Bank of Scotland launched its pioneering Home Office Banking System (HOBS) in 1985 it was introducing not just a new service, but arguably a new concept. HOBS was the UK's first telephone banking and its first PC banking service, allowing customers to actively manage their accounts from the comfort of their own home, provided they had a TV screen, and telephone/modem link-up. HOBS didn't go mainstream, but it did bring in a lot of new customers - it said 60% of those who registered in the first two years were completely new to the bank. Yet Bank of Scotland's competitors didn't e...