Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting

rdf:langString Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting

rdf:langString ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting) was a computer technology that automated bank bookkeeping and check processing. Developed at the nonprofit research institution SRI International under contract from Bank of America, the project began in 1950 and was publicly revealed in September 1955. Payments experts contend that ERMA "established the foundation for computerized banking, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR), and credit-card processing". General Electric (GE) won the production contract, deciding to transistorize the design in the process. Calling the machine the GE-100, a total of 32 ERMA machines were built. GE would use this experience to develop several mainframe computer lines before selling the division to Honeywell in 1970.