Punched-card technology enabled the processing of large amounts of data and helped shape progress in this area. However, continuous growth in business volume meant that the technology soon reached its limits. As a result, banks began to switch their operation centers to more powerful computer-based systems at the start of the 1960s. These installations calculated and printed information, such as current account and securities statements, addresses, account balances and quarterly revenues, in a single run. Union Bank of Switzerland and Credit Suisse played pioneering roles in this transition. They were the first Swiss banks to enter the computer era in 1956 with the UNIVAC 120 from Remington Rand and the Bull Gamma 3B, respectively.
For both institutions, this marked the first step from mechanical to electronic data processing. Unlike the purely mechanical tabulating machines, the UNIVAC 120 and the Bull Gamma 3B used vacuum-tube technology, which allowed them to carry out calculations significantly faster.
Union Bank of Switzerland and Credit Suisse continued to input instructions to the computers by means of a wire plugboard as they were not yet freely programmable. However, employees were able to change the plugboards, which allowed programs and workflows to be adapted. Punched cards triggered additional commands, such as calculating a subtotal or printing the grand total.
In 1959, Union Bank of Switzerland replaced its original system with the UNIVAC UCT-I. This had metal tapes instead of punched cards to store data and a magnetic drum for working memory. The UNIVAC UCT-II was added in 1961, providing magnetic tape stations for long-term storage and core memory in combination with magnetic drums. Programs could now be loaded as code into the memory. Union Bank of Switzerland continued to use punched cards and tape drives to input data and programs. Credit Suisse introduced its first computer, the Gamma-ET magnetic-drum calculator designed in France, in 1959. Swiss Bank Corporation followed suit in 1962, deploying the IBM 1401 in its data processing operations. That same year, Credit Suisse replaced its Gamma-ET with the more modern Bull Gamma 30 generation, which used transistors instead of vacuum-tube technology.
Text sources:
Joseph Jung, From Schweizerische Kreditanstalt to Credit Suisse Group: The History of a Bank, Zurich, 2000
Hans Neukom, Early Use of Computers in Swiss Banks, in: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26/3, 2004
Union Bank of Switzerland, Beschreibung des UNIVAC-UCT-Systems, in: Elektronische Datenverarbeitung in der Bank, 1959
Credit Suisse, SKA Organisationsbureau, Elektronische Daten-Verarbeitung im Dienste unserer Kunden, Zurich, 1959
Credit Suisse, Technische und organisatorische Fortschritte im Dienste unserer Kunden, Zurich, 1963
UBS Virtual Museum, The bank’s first computer, 2022
UBS Museum – exhibition: Swiss Bank Corporation – Geschichte einer Partnerschaft – IBM Zukunft inkl., Basel
UBS Museum – exhibition: UCT I and II (UNIVAC calculating tabulator), Basel
Image source:
UBS Long-Term Archives, photographer Jean-Pierre Vautier, Geneva
Image sources at the exhibition:
UBS Long-Term Archives, photographer Jean-Pierre Vautier, Geneva
UBS Long-Term Archives
Sources of the images used in the exhibition video:
Joseph Jung, From Schweizerische Kreditanstalt to Credit Suisse Group: The History of a Bank, Zurich, 2000
UBS Long-Term Archives
UBS Long-Term Archives, photo H. Wolf-Bender's Erben, Zürich
UBS Long-Term Archives, photographer Christian Bauer, Basel
UBS Long-Term Archives, photographer W. Imber, Laufen