with this large volume, which was overwhelming brokerage firms, the stock exchanges were forced to close every week (they chose every Wednesday), and trading hours were shortened on other days of the week. Industry response The first response was to hold all paper stock certificates in one centralized location, and automate the process by keeping electronic records of all certificates and securities clearing and settlement (changes of ownership and other securities transactions). The method was first used in Austria by the Vienna Giro and Depository Association in 1872. One problem was state laws requiring brokers to deliver certificates to investors. Eventually all the states were convinced that this notion was obsolete and changed their laws. For the most part, investors can still request their certificates, but this has several inconveniences, and most people do not, except for novelty value. This led the New York Stock Exchange to establish the Central Certificate Service (CCS) in 1968 at 44 Broad Street in New York City. Anthony P. Reres was appointed the head of CCS. NYSE President Robert W. Haack promised: "We are going to automate the stock certificate out of business by substituting a punch card. We just can't keep up with the flood of business unless we do". The CCS transferred securities electronically, eliminating their physical handling for settlement purposes, and kept track of the total number of shares held by NYSE members. This relieved brokerage firms of the work of inspecting, counting, and storing certificates. Haack labeled it "top priority", $5 million was spent on it, and its goal was to eliminate up to 75% of the physical handling of stock certificates traded between brokers. One problem, however, was that it was voluntary, and brokers responsible for two-thirds of all trades refused to use it. By January 1969, it was transferring 10,000 shares per day, and plans were made for it to be handling broker-to-broker transactions in 1,300 issues by March 1969. In 1970 the CCS service was extended to the American Stock Exchange. This led to the development of the Banking and Securities Industry Committee (BASIC), which represented leading U.S. banks and securities exchanges, and was headed by a banker named Herman Beavis, and finally the development of DTC in 1973, which was headed by Bill Dentzer, the former New York State Banking Superintendent. All the top New York banks were represented on the board, usually by their chairman.