Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 25 SepteMber 2017
The ATM at 50: How it’s changed consumer behavior

By KEN SWEET goods. Now that means
AP Business Writer getting movie tickets
NEW YORK (AP) — An and boarding passes,
automated teller ma- self-checkout at grocery
chine. The cash ma- stores, and online shop-
chine. In Britain, a cash- ping that brings prod-
point. ATMs, known for ucts to your door with a
spitting out $20 bills (and few clicks. All are based
imposing fees if you pick on the idea that peo-
the wrong one), turn ple can handle routine
50 years old this year. transactions by them-
They’re ubiquitous — selves without a teller or
and possibly still a ne- cashier.
cessity, despite the big “The ATM tapped into
changes in how people that innate force in peo-
pay for things. ple that gives gratifica-
It was a radical move tion for doing a task on
when Barclays installed their own and it grew
cash machines in a Lon- from there,” said Charles
don suburb in 1967. The Kane, a professor at the
utilitarian machine gave MIT Sloan School of Man- In this 1986 photo provided by NCR, a man uses an automated teller machine. 2017 marks the
fixed amounts of money, agement. 50th anniversary of the ATM. Newer ATMs have more functions than ever. Associated Press
using special vouchers It was a radical concept
— the magnetic-striped at the time. The ATM
ATM card hadn’t been wasn’t the first self-ser- was in their account, year by the Bureau of posits, can transfer mon-
then again after with- Engraving and Printing. ey between accounts,
drawing money to see if The first place spot is show an account bal-
it registered. held by the $1 bill. ance, pay a credit card
“They were popular, but Even as people use cash or mortgage payment,
it took a long time to less, and credit cards or or even sell you stamps.
slowly convince custom- mobile payments more NCR, another major
ers to learn about ATMs
and use them regularly,”
Batiz-Lazo said.
For the banking indus-
try, ATMs meant banks
could be in thousands of
places at once, not just
in branches, and earn
billions of dollars in fees
from non-customers.
Banks used to staff doz-
ens of tellers at each
branch to handle rou-
tine transactions, now
many staffers work on
other tasks, like sales or
account maintenance.
Around the U.S. today
are roughly 3 million cash
machines, according to
the ATM Industry Associ- In this Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, frame grab from video, NCR brief-
ation. Most are actually ing center manager Ksenia Bocharova demonstrates dispute
not owned by banks, resolution on NCR’s newest ATM, in Duluth, Ga. 2017 marks the
In this Jan. 19, 1968, file photo, a woman puts her computer but by private compa- 50th anniversary of the ATM.
punch card into the slot of an automated teller machine, out- Associated Press
side a bank in central London. nies that install them
at convenience stores,
invented yet. There was vice device — vending restaurants and bars in often, the ATM isn’t going manufacturer of ATMs,
no way for a customer machines and the au- hopes of grabbing cus- anywhere for a while. At say the latest models
to transfer money be- tomat had been popu- tomers who don’t want least, that’s what histori- are also designed to act
tween accounts, and lar before. But those to find a bank branch. ans and — unsurprisingly more like smart devices.
bank employees tabu- dispensed items people The wide acceptance — the ATM industry says. Kevin King of NCR says
lated the transactions could hold in their hand. of the ATMs changed Devon Watson, vice that includes “swipe,
manually at the end of Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, a the types of cash Ameri- president at Diebold Nix- gesture, multi-touch.”
each day. business professor and cans typically carry in dorf, the world’s largest And future ATMs will like-
As the ATMs became ATM historian (yes, they the pocketbooks. Since manufacturer of ATMs, ly start selling products
familiar, though, they exist!) at Bangor Univer- ATMs became more says 85 percent of all as well. Have a check-
changed not only the sity in Britain, said early widely available in the transactions worldwide ing account? The ATM
banking industry but users of automated tell- early 1980s, the twenty- are still in cash. will ask you whether you
made people comfort- ers were often check- dollar bill has regularly Newer ATMs have more want to open a broker-
able interacting with ing their balances twice: been the second-most functions than ever. age account. Much like
kiosks in exchange for once to see how much printed bank note each They accept check de- tellers did.q