Bank of America developed ERMA, the Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting system, in the 1950s to automate cheque processing.
ERMA was created with Stanford Research Institute and General Electric as banks faced rapidly increasing cheque volumes. The system used magnetic-ink character recognition to read account information printed in magnetic ink, reducing manual bookkeeping.
The first ERMA system was demonstrated in 1955, and Bank of America began using it operationally soon afterward. Its work helped establish automated bank-account processing and influenced later electronic banking systems.
ERMA is sometimes confused with an ATM or a payment network. It was neither: ERMA was a back-office computer system for processing cheques and maintaining customer-account records. The magnetic-ink technology it popularized remains associated with cheque processing.