The Transformation of Banking

Sometimes it takes society a while to catch up with technology but when it does anything is possible.  For example, the ATMs are widely used every where, everyday, thousands of times a day and yet in the 1960s when it was first introduced in the United States people had a hard time using a machine to transact their business.  For this reason it was discontinued.   History:  John Shepherd-Barron invented and installed an ATM in the Barclays Bank in London in the 1930s.  Don Wetzel invented an American ATM in 1968, which could only dispense cash. Then in September, 1969 Chemical Bank revolutionized banking with the first ATM but it also only dispensed cash.  However, by 1971 ATMs had evolved to where they could not only dispense cash but it could also provide customers with their balances, and some other functions.  By the 1980s ATMs were in wide demand, and like every good thing with time comes change.  In the 1990s the banking industry came up with a new way to make money, they started charging for the use of ATMs.  For a customer to use their bank’s ATM it will cost nothing, but when it comes to the use of any other bank’s ATM there will be a charge associated. Today banking has evolved so drastically that the way we think of banking has taken on a totally different image.  There are still tellers in the bank, people still stand on line to cash their checks or make deposits and the banking industry continues pretty much the same in its day to day activities.  However, technology has given us online banking, direct deposit, the use of smart phones, it enables the taking of a picture of a check and deposits it directly into an account.  It doesn’t stop there, the financial industry and technology continues to change and expand every day.  We’ve come a long way baby!