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Happy birthday ATM!
Julie E. Houston • Bankrate.com
The past, present and future of the ATM.
Thirty years ago, man first walked on the moon, Woodstock
rocked a generation, the Boston Celtics won the NBA finals, and
the ATM was introduced in the United States.
It's hard to imagine a world before the teller machine
saturated the marketplace, with machines in every bank, shopping
center, auditorium and mall in America. But in the summer of Woodstock
-- 1969, the ATM was a novelty.
At Griffis Air Force Base, home of Woodstock 99, there
were ATM machines galore to make sure you have cash handy for your
veggie burritos, tie-dye T-shirt and love beads. But the majority
of attendees at the festival have never known a time when an ATM
wasn't on every corner of their hometowns.
"I hate to admit it, but I can remember when the ATM
was first introduced," Mary Hoover, vice president and director
of marketing for ICL Financial Services, in La Jolla, Calif., admits.
"It was unique, there's no question," she adds.
Jack Kucler, executive vice president of Key Electronic
Services, in Cleveland, contends that the first automated tellers
were a novelty. "They were first developed to allow bank customers
access to cash [as an alternative to using the teller.]
"As they started catching on, more banks became aware
of that having the machines was a huge plus, and more banks began
to install them. They developed a shared network and formed a partnership.
Now if you have a Key bank card, there is freer access and you can
use anyone in the network," he says.
It looks like a teller and acts like a teller ...
Kucler adds that after the first 10 to 20 years, the
uses of the ATM expanded to allow deposits and other transactions.
"They became more and more teller-like. We try to make the machine
look and feel like a bank teller," he says.
Eventually, the banks began to realize that though
the machines were an added convenience for their customers and the
bank, there was a cost associated with operating the machines. So
within the last four to five years, according to Kucler, the banks
have started to tack on a surcharge fee for transactions made at
ATMs outside of your network.
Over the last 30 years, the banking industry and
technology have kept up with the increasing demands of their
users with machines that stretch way beyond the convenient deposit,
withdrawal and transfer functions. Machines with touch screens,
color graphics, drive-up convenience, coin distribution and handicapped
accessibility have graced the marketplace.
Now, the newer models of the ATM machines are dispensing
bus tickets, postage stamps, coupons, prepaid phone cards and even
concert tickets. "We've even got a machine in the lobby of the Rock
and Roll Music Hall of Fame in Cleveland that was designed like
a juke box, so it plays music while you wait to complete your transaction,"
Kucler says.
"It's evolved into that kind of world. We considered
how we could use the ATM for added value and services for the customer,"
Kucler adds.
However, the machines are no longer seen as providing
only a service for the customer. They are also the perfect spot
for your favorite laundry detergent, gas station or movie studio
to fill your brain with advertising while you wait. Kucler says
that there are already machines being tested that have full motion
video enabling them play these advertisements. "It's more effective
than the Sunday paper. You've got a captive audience," he says.
And as the technology develops further, your ATM card
and personal identification number will tell the machine vital demographic
information about you such as your age and sex so that they can
target your needs and customize the advertising just for you.
Back to the future
The bright ideas don't stop there, though. At pilot
machines across the country, biometrics is being used to identify
users. At these machines, you can toss your ATM card, and log into
your account with the touch of your finger or the iris of your eye.
Kelly Gates, marketing director for IriScan in Marlton,
N.J., says that iris recognition is "an added level of convenience,
accuracy, and risk reduction for the bank. The details of your iris
are more unique that your fingerprint or even your DNA. The machine
uses regular cameras to capture the colored surface, or iris, of
your eye, and identifies you based on the different shapes and light
patterns that make up the eye."
You may be thinking of the latest sci-fi movie where
laser beams shoot out and read into the eye to identify Bond, James
Bond. But Gates is exasperated by the comparison. "What Hollywood
does to our technology is completely wrong."
Mary Hoover, suggests that Hollywood's influence on
iris recognition may be why people are a bit more reluctant to try
it. "People may get this perception that big brother is watching,"
she says. As another alternative to the ATM card, ICL is implementing
a finger scanning technology into their machines. Hoover says that
such technology is less expensive than iris recognition, while it
still maintains a high degree of reliability and acceptance.
"A survey we conducted found that 69 percent of Americans
were willing to try the machines even before they ever see one.
We think that when people actually see how easy it is, their willingness
will increase -- even with older generations," she says.
And as we get older, it is anticipated that the ATM
will stick around. Kucler predicts that we can expect the ATM to
meet our grandchildren at the 100th anniversary of Woodstock,
as well. "It might not be called an ATM, or even dispense cash [assuming
we move to an e-money society], but I don't think we will ever have
a time where electronic banking machines are not part of our world."
-- Posted: July 5, 1999
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