With more and more people using banks today, the business of banking is basically about efficient and convenient service delivery. ATM has become an important issue, not only in retaining consumers, but also as a competitive advantage while boosting the overall profitability. ATMs have gained prominence as a delivery channel for banking transactions in India.

Banks have been deploying ATMs to increase their reach, ATM provides banking services for 24 hours. For this reason some people also call it ‘All Time Money’ Machine. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe with a chip that contains a unique card number.

The card usually have the name of the holder, its type and other information. Authentication is provided by the customer by entering a Personal Identification Number (PIN). Then the customer can avail its various services like cash withdrawal, checking balance etc. ATM or Cash points was first introduced in 1961 by the City Bank of New York on a trial basis. It allowed banks to provide their consumers with a convenient way, round the clock, to carry out varying transactions. However it was not appreciated much at that time and was removed after a period of 6 months.

After various modifications it was re-introduced in various countries and saw an extensive usage. With regard to India, HSBC Bank was the first bank in India to offer ATM facility in 1987. Presently, almost all the banks are offering ATM facility adequately in cities as well as in rural areas. ATMs have revolutionised the banking industry. It would not be wrong to say that outwardly Automated Teller Machine appears like a human weighing machine. Huge usage and user-friendliness makes the comparison even more prominent. But ATM’s have alternate purpose to serve. Today’s ATMs are placed not only near or inside the banks, but in locations such as shopping malls, airports, metros, railway station, petrol station, grocery stores or any other place frequented by a large number of people. ATM also provide the best possible exchange rates for foreign travellers and are widely used for this purpose.

If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the bank account is denominated, then the money will be converted at an official exchange rate. ATMs eliminate the need for the customers to travel to the branch at which his/her accounts are maintained if the machines are conveniently located and networked. For this reason, the number of customers visiting the bank has reduced tremendously. This in turn has resulted in huge savings in the employee-related costs for the banks.

ATM Machine Essay Word Meanings for Simple Understanding

• Evolutionary – the process of developing
• Automated – made automatic, done by machine
• Teller – a bank clerk who receives and pays out money
• Retaining – to maintain possession of, to keep in one’s service
• Prominence – fame, importance, notability
• Deploying – set up, to bring into action, to arrange
• Avail – utilise
• Authentication – validating the correctness
• Frequented – to visit often
• Denominated – to denote, to issue or express in terms of a given monetary unit
• Tremendously – extremely, hugely
• Misappropriation – theft, embezzlement, stealing
• Levy – to impose or collect
• Oblivious – unaware, ignorant, careless
• Renewing – reviving