PIN inventor recalls ‘eureka moment’ 50 years on

The man behind personal identification number (PIN) technology, which allows people to withdraw cash from bank machines, has recalled his “eureka moment” as he marks 50 years since its invention.

James Goodfellow, 79, was a young engineer working in Glasgow in the 1960s when the banks were looking for a way of letting customers get hold of their money after branches closed on a Saturday morning.

He worked on the project for a number of weeks and came up with the idea of a coded card with a personal number to access money from cash machines.