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Despite the rise of electronic payments, people still seem to need cash—even at the ends of the earth. And we mean that quite literally.
In anticipation of next year’s 50th anniversary of the fist automated teller machine, the ATM Industry Association has published its “Extreme ATMs Dossier”, featuring 15 extreme ATM deployments around the world, from Antarctica to the middle of an Australian desert, as well as 10 “fun” ATMs (including the ATM inside an Asian elephant at a Bangkok, Thailand zoo, shown at right).
“At the end of last year, ATMIA ran a global competition to find the world’s most extreme and most interesting ATMs,” explains Mike Lee, ATMIA CEO. “We’re getting into a mode of celebrating the role and global expanse of the world’s 3 million ATMs.”
The dossier conveys the message that there’s virtually nowhere on earth modern ATMs cannot reach. ATMIA’s goal is to pay tribute to the spirit of adventure and innovation of the ATM industry, and to the robustness of its technology which enables the terminals to operate efficiently in extreme cold as well as in extreme heat.
“I’d like to thank all the entrants we received from around the world and to congratulate Wells Fargo on the bank’s incredible deployments in the challenging environment of Antarctica near the South Pole,” Lee added. “Wells Fargo’s Antarctic ATMs fully deserve to be seen as the world’s most Extreme ATMs.”
