10 Quick Facts about ATMs

• There are over 1.2 million ATMs installed worldwide, according to estimates by Retail Banking Research Ltd.
  
  
• Approximately every 5 minutes a new ATM is installed.
  
  
• According to Thomson Media’s ATM and Debit News, the number of ATMs currently deployed in the U.S. alone is about 371,000.
  
  
• Various industry bodies help to self-regulate the ATM industry including banking associations, electronic funds transfer associations, network associations and the internationally active ATM Industry Association (ATMIA).
  
  
• The ATM is one of the most important technological inventions of the second half of the twentieth century, helping to create the 24 X 7 open convenience demanded by the consumer society.
  
  
• The ATM provides millions of cardholders around the world with convenient 24 X 7 all hours access to their own banked cash near to where they live, work and shop. ATMs have made banking more convenient today than ever before: with the touch of a few buttons, cardholders can withdraw cash, make deposits, top up air time, pay bills and transfer funds.
  
  
• A recent Harris Interactive poll found that the ATM was as vital to respondents as e-mail, equal in consumers' minds to cell phones, and trailing only computers and microwaves in popularity.
  
  
• The industry does care about the security of cardholders and has formed a Global ATM Security Alliance (GASA) to combine global security resources to stamp out crime and fraud connected to ATMs.
  
  
• GASA has published international security tips for cardholders.
  
  
• Customer security is a key consideration when choosing sites for ATMs.