Fifty years: So long already for the ATM?
Fifty years ago the first ATMs were launched. They were the "only useful innovation of the banking industry in the past few decades," according to former US Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker.
The ATM makes its debut
The "Automated Teller Machine" - or ATM - was invented half a century ago by the Scotsman John Shepherd-Barron and first deployed by Barclays Bank in North London in 1967. But it was its success in the USA that spurred adoption in other nations. On September 5, 1968, the director of Capital National Bank of Miami, Theodore Davis, put one in the lobby of his bank.
The ATM crosses the Wall
The ATM even began to be used behind the Iron Curtain. Communist East Germany developed its own device. It had several hundred in use by the end of the 1980s, as this sample from the DDR Museum in Radebeul, Germany, proves.
Not always fully stocked
With almost 60,000 ATMs in Germany today, cashless cash machines are thankfully a rare thing. But the people of Greece know only too well the limits in the supply of money from the machine. When the debt crisis escalated again in June 2015, the banks were closed for a week and cash withdrawals limited to 60 euros ($64) per customer.
India’s rupee shock
Empty ATMs were also discovered by bank customers in India, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced overnight in autumn 2016 that the main rupee banknotes were invalid. The result was long, snaking queues in front of ATMs in the country’s main cities.
The ATM reaches every corner of the globe
The automatic cash machine has not only transcended political boundaries, but also belongs to everyday life in strictly Islamic countries such as Iran. Here, too, people appreciate the invention and technology of the West, even if it remains hated by the Mullah regime.
Multifunctional
ATMs have evolved over time. These days you can not only withdraw from the devices, but often deposit and a range of other services. In this ATM in St. Lucie County prison in Florida, inmates can deposit cash and lawyers can deposit bail money.
Criminal impact
This ATM in Berlin came to a sticky - and explosive - end. The fact that money in German cash machines is not invalidated by an ink dye makes them a frequent target for criminals. Barely a week goes by where an ATM in Germany is not blown up, like this one in August 2016.
Cash withdrawals from R2-D2
In the Croatian capital, Zagreb, Star Wars fans get their money's worth. The robot R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies is a welcome sight, and not only for cash-hungry customers. And what criminals would blow up the cute R2-D2?