History
The idea of self-service in retail
banking developed through independent and simultaneous efforts in Japan,
Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. In the USA, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing and
building the first cash dispenser machine There
is strong evidence to suggest that Simjian worked on this device before 1959
while his 132nd patent (US3079603) was first filed on 30 June 1960 (and granted
26 February 1963). An
experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The
Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine (accepting coins, cash and
cheques) and it did not have cash dispensing features The Bankograph embodied the
preoccupation by US banks in finding alternative means to capture core
deposits, while the concern of European and Asian banks was cash distribution.
Thus the Bankograph was NOT the first cash dispenser machine, as it did not
dispense cash.
A cash dispensing device was first
used in Tokyo in 1966. Although
little is known of this first device, it seems to have been activated with a
credit card rather than accessing current account balances. Thus it is not a
true Automated Teller Machine. This technology had no immediate consequence in
the international market.
After looking first hand at the experiences in Europe, in 1968 the networked ATM was pioneered in Dallas, Texas, by Donald Wetzel who was a department head at an automated baggage-handling company called Docutel. In 1995, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History recognised Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM.