That money has oiled the gears of a banking machine that was grinding to a disastrous halt, lifting worries that euro-zone banks would lose access to funding as they tried in vain to raise money from unwilling investors.

WSJ: Euro Crisis Clouds Global Outlook

As there was a adoption period before the 'masses' were comfortable using a machine to process banking transactions it is similar here.

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"I personally won't use online banking, and I only use a cash machine with an account which has relatively little money in it, " he said.

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In Europe I've seen countless mobile banking ideas over the last decade - from the soft drinks machine in Helsinki where you paid by SMS, to the phone which doubled as a travelcard for London's transport system, and innumerable schemes involving Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

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Meaning: Keep the cash machine going and rein in the grandiose visions of the investment banking side that seem to get Merrill into peril every seven years or so (see time line below).

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This kind of nonbank banking reaches rapidly into the hinterlands that have never seen a bank branch or even a teller machine.

FORBES: Telewallets

The scheme will be administered by the Faster Payments service - which processed more than 800 million online and phone banking transactions in 2012 - and the Link network, which processed 3.1 billion cash machine withdrawals last year.

BBC: A man uses his smartphone

Above all technology, through the Internet, the cash-machine or even the humble telephone, is offering simpler and cheaper ways for customers to do their banking.

ECONOMIST: The doomed and the dangerous | The