A Brief History of ATMs
ATMs or automated teller machines have been the part of our financial history since the middle of the 20th century. The idea of convenience and self-service entered the market back in the ’70s and changed the way we take banking and use it nowadays.
The main goal is to take cash from your banking account wherever you are 24/7, and even though back in the day it was the revolution, today, we take them for granted. Opening an account at a bank with ATMs is a necessity nowadays.
That is the main reason why we decided to present to you how everything started:
How It All Started?
The first ATM entered the market in a suburb of London, particularly Enfield, at a Barclays bank, in which they created a first cash dispenser outside the building.
The story starts with John Shepherd-Barron, who was an engineer and came up with the idea to create cash vending machine the moment when he missed the bank’s opening hours.
He approached the bank with the idea as well as drawn prototype of ATM and soon afterward, the first cash dispenser appeared with the maximum withdrawal up to ten pounds. The machine changed the way banking function and this particular name entered history.
Some professors state that this story is an exaggeration of a real event and that Shepherd-Barron was the part of the machine group, but he was not the only one. The problem was how to get cash after hours without being robbed?
At the same time, the predecessor of the ATM machine was Bankograph, which was the invention of the ’60s, a machine that will allow customers to deposit cash and checks. Other developers included the use of a magnetic stripe card.
Therefore, we can conclude that there were at least two groups working at the same time, and some evidence state that cash dispenser entered in Japan before Barclay device appeared.
For instance, Swedish cash machine appeared week after the Barclays as well as cash dispenser in Britain’s Westminster Bank. It is vital to click here, if you wish to learn more on ATMs.
1969 was a huge year when it comes to ATMs because Midland bank collaborated with Sepytech and created a machine as well as other banks across the world.
The first machines were not common, and they were used based on banks and their branches across the states and countries. At the same time, making a machine and device was demanding and required substantial investment, which is why the progress slowed down.
The first machines that started using magnetic stripe cards were Omron Tateishi’s and you should remember that Barclays machine required a unique PIN for each customer as the form of identification.
Their machines checked the number, but the main problem was security all the time. They could not ensure that the user was the holder of the count, and hackers in Sweden exploited that advantage and used the stolen token to withdraw huge amounts from various machines.
That is when banks decided to collaborate up with tech companies and increase security, but still, the first ATMs were clunky, huge, and unreliable and that is why people avoided them.
Banks Popularized Their Use
Even though they were limited at the very beginning, still technology improved and they became desired alternatives to cashiers. They emerged in the market and created a buzzword of appeal.
Each country wanted to develop ATMs for particular reasons and to push banking innovations. For instance, in Britain the idea of ATM, prototypes were born, and that is why banks have faced pressure from unions to avoid closing due to the human factor.
On the other hand, in the USA, the requirements for flexible banking were higher since banks had horrible hours for working people. At the same time, 30% of the population did not use banks for those reasons.
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Some workers received pay packets in wads of cash and they paid bills the same way. Others were paid in checks, and used department stores to cash them out, which was the more convenient way than banks.
They invested more in ATMs with the idea to boost interest and attract more customers with advancement in technology, new gadgets and to sell them like credit cards and loans. Finally, ATM is the part of the revolution and shift that brought us to a point we are now.