Thursday, June 28, 2007

Forty Years Of Overdraw Penalties

Cash machines are 40 years old

"The first one opened on June 27 1967, outside a branch of Barclays bank in Enfield, north London.
Comedy actor Reg Varney made the first transaction, withdrawing a £10 note in front of the small crowd that had gathered to witness the event.
By the end of the decade there were 781 cash machines across the world, with 595 in the UK alone.
The inventor of the cash machine, John Shepherd Barron, said he struck upon the concept after being confronted with a shut door at his local bank.
Mr Shepherd Barron said: "I remember back in 1965 that I would always take money out of my bank on a Saturday morning.
"However, one Saturday I was one minute late at my bank and it was closed. I had to ask my local garage to cash my cheque.
"That night I started thinking that there must be a better way to get cash when I wanted it."
(...)
The reach of ATM has even gone as far as the South Pole - a machine at the remote McMurdo station serves a small permanent team of Antarctic scientists"


Just in time for a financial crisis too. Even a depression?

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