The Cash Machines By Navirah Zafar Jilani
Uploaded by eddyslash on Mar 20, 2009
The Cash Machines
By Navirah Zafar Jilani
You're short on cash, so you walk over to the automated teller machine (ATM), insert your card into the card reader, respond to the prompts on the screen and within a minute you walk away with your money and a receipt. These were such simpler times when ATM machines processed money with no error. But now as one walks in to withdraw money from the ATM, the user is greeted by the ATM card getting jammed and ‘down link’ on most of the ATM machines, just helping to ignite ones blood pressure to scorching heights.
The ATM or cash machine first came into existence (1967) in a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London, 42 years ago. The inspiration struck Mr Shepard Baron while taking a bath. Mr Shepherd-Barron is very much alive to new ideas and inventions, even though his device that plays killer whale noises still needs a little bit of tuning.
These machines now are found at most supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol stations and travel centres. Have you ever wondered about the process that makes your bank funds available to you at an ATM?
An ATM is simply a data terminal with two input and four output devices as described by Shah Mahmood, an employee in Bank Alfalah credit banking. Like any other data terminal, the ATM has to connect to and communicate through a host processor. The host processor is analogous to an Internet service provider (ISP) in that it is the gateway through which all the various ATM networks become available to the cardholder (the person wanting the cash).Usually the host processor is owned by a bank or financial institution or it may be owned by an independent service provider. Bank-owned processors normally support only bank-owned machines, whereas the independent processors support merchant-owned machines.
A new innovation in ATM cards is debit cards. As briefed by a senior banker Faisal Shah, you can use your ATM card as either a credit card or a debit card; either way it comes out of your account. The only difference is that if you tell the attendant ‘credit card’, you sign a slip and if you tell the attendant ‘debit card’, you enter your PIN number instead of signing. Some banks charge you a fee if you use your check card as a debit card (if it costs them more to process those transactions), but not...