Someday everyone will bank this way.

I'm in the process of opening a new current account, one that pays interest at greater than the level of inflation. So I've got my new Cheque book, my account numbers, my Visa Delta card, envelopes to send cheques to the processing centre in Bootle, my PIN for phone banking for the current account, my PIN for phone banking with the compulsary associated savings account, my PIN for the card, my internet banking number, and my internet PIN. That's a lot of PINs to remember.

The internert ID is a 12 digit number. That's long enough for everyone in the world to have one, and still two digits left over for a checksum.

This brings the number of financial institutions that I have accounts with to 9, and I shudder to think how many accounts.