Having technology perform many of the functions that front-office staff have traditionally done, allows banks to improve their efficiency - industrialise as you say.
However, it also allows the financial industry to become commoditiesed and lowers the barriers to entry. You only need to walk down the City of London to see the sheer number of banks form all over the world. They all compete (except when they collude) and drive down prices. Secondly, you also start seeing large corporates doing their own banking - what does a bank to that BP can't do on their own?
That being said, a significant portion of the pain is from giving birth on a hospital bed - or just lying flat in general. It is said (as a man, I have never given birth) that it is less painful, and therefore less in need of an epidural, if the birthing is done in a upright or crouching position. Like how an orangutan does it : http://youtu.be/JfVnFJDjUyQ?t=30s
The very idea of lying down for a birth dates back to the 18th century, when some French king wanted to see the birth of his heir. Of course men were not allowed in the birthing room, so he had to peek through a hole in the wall - or something like that. And the queen had to be in a position that allowed the king to see, so she was lying down facing so the king could see what was going on.
It should be noted that in the UK, as opposed to the US and Australia, most births don't have doctors present. Births are normally monitored by a midwife in a maternity ward, as opposed to a doctor in a ob/gen clinic. So the move from a hospital setting into a home setting is not such a big leap in the UK.
Things are changing. If I understand Dodd-Frank/EMIR correctly, every OTC derivatives trade now has to be reported to the regulator within something like 15 minutes (or was it 15 days?).
Anyways, the regulators now will have a pretty complete picture of what each bank holds, at least for a single asset-class.
Though, I suspect information on exchange traded stocks, and centrally cleared swaps are also available to the regulators, via the respective exchanges and execution facilities.