The first ATM in America debuted briefly in 1961 at a New York City bank. This simple machine accepted deposits, including coins, banknotes, and checks, but was pulled after only six months because bank customers didn’t trust the new technology. This machine, known as the Bankograph, did not dispense cash. That advance would have to wait another five years, until a credit-card-activated cash dispensing machine was installed in Tokyo in 1966.
In 1967, world-famous Barclay’s Bank in the UK installed the first ATM on British soil. This machine ran on checks imprinted with a customer’s unique personal identification number as plastic keycard technology did not yet exist. The installation of this ATM coincided with a similar design which was installed in Uppsala, Sweden. It would not be until 1969, two years later, that the first cash-dispensing ATM as we are familiar with it today would be installed on US soil, at Chemical Bank in New York’s Rockville Centre.

This was the first ATM to use magnetically coded information on a specially-issued bank card, the forerunner of the modern ATM card, and was programmed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when the card was inserted. Although the initial cost of ATM machines for sale gave many banks pause, the convenience and ready access to customers’ cash reserves could hardly be ignored, and the ATM quickly became an indispensible and ubiquitous part of American life.
While the original ATM did exactly what it was intended to do, there were still some problems. Tampering and theft was a distinct possibility, and the technology for remote cameras that could deter theft and robbery at ATMs was still in its infancy. Each unit stood alone, and if you weren’t a customer of a given bank, you couldn’t withdraw money. The next big innovation in ATMs became the networked machine, allowing customers to withdraw money from any ATM serviced by the bank’s network.
Today, you have to go far afield to not be in convenient reach of an ATM. The modern ATM contains electronic security and auditing features that would have been unthinkable when the first cash-dispensing machines debuted. Although these ATMs are packed with features, they still retain their initial intent and function, offering the customer readier access to their funds than ever before. To see how an ATM can help your business, no matter what size or type, contact ATMMS for the best Las Vegas ATM sales and service around!