Developing a common machine language for banking: the ABA technical subcommittee story

In the mid-1950s a volunteer committee of bankers managed the development of a check processing standard that transformed the banking industry. The standard forced business machine manufacturers to adopt the new system rather than continuing to incrementally increase their own market share. The result was a new system allowing economies of scale through the exploitation of emerging electronic technologies. In tracing these developments, this story illustrates an interesting episode of how the "manager's guiding hand" works to allow markets to shape technology.