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Wells Fargo keeps some of its ATMs on ice

David M. Parker, Wells Fargo & Co.'s vice president of ATM Banking, describes the financial institution's network this way: "We have ATMs coast-to-coast and pole-to-pole."

August 22, 2010

David M. Parker, Wells Fargo & Co.'s vice president of ATM Banking, describes the financial institution's network this way: "We have ATMs coast-to-coast and pole-to-pole."

Wells Fargo, a San Francisco-based bank, is the nation’s third-largest bank owner of ATMs. It operates 12,352 machines nationwide. There are three Wells Fargo ATMs, however, that are not on many travelers’ itineraries. Two machines are located in Antarctica and one is deployed near the Arctic Circle.

The ATMs, which are deployed in Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, the hub of the U.S. Antarctic Scientific Research Program, have won Wells Fargo a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records, a fact Wells Fargo is proud to mention.

“Our ATMs at McMurdo Station are the southernmost ATMs in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. In fact, they’re the only ones on the entire continent of Antarctica—kind of cool to say that,” Wells Fargo said in a paper titled, “ATMs All Over.” McMurdo Station, located at 77 degrees 51 minutes south, 166 degrees 40 minutes east, is the largest Antarctic station.

McMurdo Station opened in 1955, but Wells Fargo first deployed ATMs there in 1998 at the request of an unnamed client who agreed to subsidize the machines’ operations, Parker said. Even so, Wells Fargo officials had to give it some thought. “We deploy ATMs where customers do their banking so the request was outside our normal strategy,” he explained.

Wells Fargo installed two NCR Corp. ATMs. Although there are two machines only one is in operation at any one time, he said. “We cannibalize the parts from one if the other stops working,” Parker said. “And if the one that had been operating cannot be fixed, we switch to the other ATM." Several years ago, Wells Fargo replaced those ATMs with newer models.

Every two years, the bank flies a technician to the McMurdo Station to replace the ATM belts, cash cartridges and other parts. But getting on to McMurdo Station can be difficult, Parker said. “There is a four-to-five month queue because there is a priority list of things that first must go to the station,” he said.

Wells Fargo first flies the technician to New Zealand, where he must take a physical, have dental work checked and undergo psychological tests. "If a storm should occur while the technician is at McMurdo Station, he has to remain there six months until the weather permits him to leave,” Parker said.

The ATMs are surcharge-free cash dispensers, which are housed inside one of the station’s 85 or so buildings. McMurdo Station employees have their paychecks direct-deposited to their bank accounts. So what do employees purchase with the funds?

“There’s a company store and a bar,” Parker said. During Antarctica’s summer (October, November, December and January) the station’s population swells to more than 1,000. During Antarctica’s winter, which falls in July, August and September, the population drops to less than 200. Temperatures in August drop to minus 28 degrees centigrade. In January, the temperature is 3 degrees centigrade. During Antarctica’s summer, cash withdrawals are double winter’s. Parker declined to provide figures.

The machines are a form of cash recycling ATMs. Since there is no armored car service to deliver cash, the job is left to McMurdo Station employees. They are trained to replace the cash that is withdrawn so there is always an available supply of funds, Parker said.

The story behind Wells Fargo’s ATM located in Barrow, Alaska, seems normal compared with McMurdo Station. Barrow, also known as Ukpeagvik, is one of the northernmost cities in the world and the northernmost city in the United States. The city, which had a population of 4,683 in 2000, is 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean borders on three sides.

Wells Fargo, which operates a branch in Barrow, acquired the office July 17, 2000, when it merged with National Bancorp of Alaska. National Bank of Alaska operated 53 branches and 150 ATMs. The branches changed their names to Wells Fargo in 2001.

The Barrow branch has a full-service Diebold Inc. ATM that accepts deposits as well as dispenses cash, Parker said.

The ATMs in McMurdo Station and the one in Barrow are 7,000 miles apart.

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