50 YEARS OF THE CASH MACHINE
A CONVENIENT IDEA THAT SOON WENT GLOBAL
The world’s most northerly machine is at Longyearbyen in Norway; the most southerly is at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
The cash machine in Vatican City, Rome, is the only one that gives instructions in Latin.
In 2016, £175billion was withdrawn from the UK’s 70,000 cash machines. The average withdrawal is £71.
Cash machines in Lapland blow out hot air to prevent ice from fouling the mechanisms.
Cash machines in Japan and Brazil use fingerprints rather than a PIN to identify customers. In China, which did not get its first ATM until 1987, they use facial recognition technology. The most money withdrawn from UK cash machines in a single day was £730million on December 23 last year.
At the last count there were still more than 50 countries in the world that have no cash machines. Brazil has the most – more than 160,000.
All cash machines return the card before dispensing cash. It is done this way to prevent you walking off without your card. by mobile telephone while we are on the go, or using our tablets to make instant money transfers. On public transport we are much more likely to use prepaid cards, such as Oyster, rather than cash.
Some enterprising churches are even updating their collection box methods to allow electronic contributions.
ECONOMIST Guy Shone, the chief executive of ExplainTheMarket.com, says: “There is still something reassuring about having money in your pocket but in fewer and fewer places is it now essential to hand over hard cash.
“There are so many ways to pay that there’s no longer that anxiety if the cash machine isn’t working.
“They won’t disappear overnight and may evolve to also provide other services such as charging phones but cash machines will eventually die out.”
To mark the 50th anniversary of the first cash machine, the latest version at Barclays in Enfield has been painted gold.
However, while they still have a place in our busy lives for now, it seems the gilded age of these devices is over.