Banking on the screen, dispensing with the phone

In the 1980s and 1990s the development of the call centre industry and the spread of the cash machine liberated us bank customers from the tyranny of the lunch hour bank queue. Instead of turning up politely to stand in line for a teller so we could deposit or cash our cheques, we found ourselves queueing outside for access to the hole in the wall - our employers electronically wired our salaries to the bank's back-office and we electronically extracted them again from the front.

It was at that point that we realised we could dispense with the bank's august portals completely and we all signed up for telephone banking. So now, instead of queueing very occasionally to get a statement or change a direct debit, we could make our banking arrangements from the comfort of our own phones and in the comfort of our own homes.

But, and such is human nature, even this complete liberation from the bank's bureaucratic requirements is no longer enough, according to futurologists, the Future Foundation.