The first ATM opened for business on June 27, 1967 at a Barclay’s Bank branch in Enfield, North London. This machine was the first of six cash dispensers commissioned by Barclay’s Bank.

John Shepherd-Barron, a Scotsman was credited with inventing the automated teller machine in the 1960s, although inventors from across the globe were working simultaneously to produce a viable cash dispensing machine. Multiple patents were filed, but Shepherd-Barron’s machine was the version installed at the Barclay’s Bank and became generally accepted as the first cash dispenser. Customers were able to withdraw a maximum of $14 in cash per transaction from their own accounts with a specially impregnated check and a personal identification number. The machines were an immediate unequivocal success. America’s first ATM made its public debut in Rockville Center, New York in 1969.

Now there are an estimated three million cash machines across the globe with some 70,000 cash machines in the UK alone which dispensed 175 billion pounds in 2016. The world’s most northerly machine is at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway – about 800 miles from the North Pole. The most southerly ATM is located at the McMurdo station at the South Pole. McMurdo Station, a U.S. Antarctic research station established in 1956, is the largest community in Antarctica, and to keep up with its 250 to 1,000 residents’ monetary needs, Wells Fargo established the ATM around 2000. A technician is dispatched to perform preventative maintenance on the ATM every two years.

SMA Solutions’ Ascern was originally deployed by Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU), a $7.98B credit union headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts to replace an outdated tool that monitored their ATM devices and card processing system.

When it came to ATM tracking, DCU’s IS Operations Team Leader Allison Cormier and her team realized other ancillary benefits. “We are able to track and trend transaction types, counts, cash flow, device status and other processes in almost real time, giving us the ability to find issues sooner rather than later.” DCU now uses Ascern’s reliable predictive data to monitor a wide range of other devices.

On September 29, 2016 Allison Cormier, representing Digital Federal Credit Union, was presented with an Excellence in Technology Award at the 21st Annual CUNA Technology Council Conference. The credit union was recognized for its deployment of Ascern.