Retail banking through the ages - a pictoral guide

On the day that Metro Bank launches in the London - the first new retail bank for 100 years - the Telegraph has produced this slideshow which illustrates how retail banking has changed over the years. Some good examples in here of the changing face of customer service as well as the ways in which retailing in financial services has altered over the decades.

Retail banking has seen much technological innovation - from the introduction of computerised transaction processing, to the cashpoint machine and smart card. I’m not sure that the reputation of banking (and bankers) has improved much over the years though. Most entrepreneurs I speak to don’t have a good word to say about the banking sector currently. Maybe the launch of Metro will herald a new era when banks start taking their customer seriously rather than patronising and ripping them off in equal measure