Developed in Britain by inventor John Shepherd- Barron in the early 1960s, it was 1967 before the ATM first hit in the high street in the UK. Inspired by chocolate vending machines, Shepherd-Barron developed a system that used special cheques impregnated with a radioactive compound which was detected and then matched by a PIN number in the days before plastic credit cards.
Now a familiar feature on the high street, ATMs quickly spread to other areas such as airports, newsagents and petrol stations. Nowadays, ATMs are split into two types: on and off premise. On premise machines are generally the more advanced of the two and are connected to a bank with multi-function capabilities. Off premise machines are not distributed by banks but Independent Sales Organisations which are known as "white label ATMs" and are generally offer straight forward money telling rather than other more advanced services such as balance enquiries or statement print-out.
When it comes to connecting to financial networks, most ATMs relay information back and forth between a number of different institutions which allows customers from different banks to use the same machine. Using an ATM which is operated by a bank which your account is not with can sometimes incur a small charge but the majority of systems are now so well connected that fees are minimal if not non existent.
Since their invention in the '60s, ATM machines have since gone on to have a much broader global presence. There are thought to be 1.8 million ATMs in use around the world with tellers even being installed on cruise and navy ships to provide those in transit with even better access to their finances. The invention and expansion of multilingual ATM software also means that one model can be rolled out across numerous countries whilst being just as accessible to speakers of various different languages.