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Who's your ATM?

April 17, 2013 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC

Yesterday, while perusing the current electronic issue of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald (as an expat I still like to keep up with the footie scores) I came across the article, "Stop treating travelers like ATMs!"

And the thought hit me — how many times have we, as travelers, felt like ATMs to the local populations? For that matter, how many times have we felt like ATMs to our families?

Recently on the way to the airport, our daughter asked my wife, "Is the bank of Holen still open?" Of course, I misheard her, and wondered how the Bank of Holland had managed to set up in Boulder, Colo.

Then I realized she was referring to her mom, last name of Holen. It was strange to think of my wife viewed as an object. True, this really was merely a primitive person-to-person transaction, but the implication made me think about it quite differently!

When I first started travelling internationally on business (I am talking the very early 1970s), my ticket would arrive from the travel agent in a presentation folder that also held a wad of American Express traveler's checks.

Nationally recognized bankcards simply didn't exist and it wasn't until I was about to leave Australia for the first time that I even saw my first ATM on a street corner in Sydney. The very first ATM machines there were unveiled in 1969. Wait! That's more than forty years ago; I must be getting old!

According to one report I was able to find, "people could only receive $25 at a time and the bank card was sent back to people by the bank as soon as possible." These early ATM transactions were really little more than person-to-person banking with minimal automation involved.

Today, I would more likely leave home without the keys to my house than without my ATM card. I have a specific ATM card that is tied to a travel-specific bank account, and I use it solely while away on business — the account doesn't contain a large amount of funds, a practice many of us here in America have adopted.

All the same, once I have arrived at a destination, pulled local currency from an airport ATM, and loaded my wallet, it seems to me that I become fair game to all and sundry.

Whether it's a coffee shop around the corner from the hotel, a newspaper stand or the local taxi driver, there you are, doling out cash "on demand," if you like. Is it any wonder then that when it comes to governments looking at tourists alighting from planes around the clock, they see de facto ATMs?

As the story in the SMH went on to note, these days, "Travelers are regarded by governments as the fabulously wealthy who can afford to pay whatever is demanded!"

Therein lies my dilemma — do we need to view ATMs as objects anymore, and should we extend the definition to include individuals? And do the same fundamentals of trust and security still apply?

As I was taking our daughter to the airport, Margo reassured her that yes, the Bank of Holen was still open — how much did she need to withdraw?

ATMs have become so pervasive, so readily available, that it is making me realize — P2P transactions are little different from P2ATM transactions once you get past the object vs. person considerations.

If an ATM is nothing more than a financial institution channel, and P2P is nothing more than a service, would it be more accurate then to place people in the channel category?

From my own observations of what we expect out of ATMs (and even cash back at the POS), what then is different about the expectations we have of people? And is the Australian government being unfair at all considering tourists as ATMs?

A short time ago I was talking to the chief architect for a well known payments platform provider — which in some reports has been labeled as the biggest solutions vendor in the ATM marketplace.

What he told me was that there was little functionality being added to products in support of ATMs and that the focus now was on mobile and online banking. Specifically, in mature markets such as North America, the "action" was firmly shifting in favor of customers with smartphones and tablets carrying out banking tasks while sipping cappuccinos.

Should the need for cash arise, ATMs were now just one way to get at it, since almost every store handling debit and even select loyalty cards could provide cash, even if only to cover a tip.

The challenge I see is that the lines between channels and services and indeed, potentially, payment systems, are becoming blurred if not indistinguishable. If we don't stop thinking of each of them as being unique, we may be doing ourselves and our customers a real disservice.

Around our home, the bank of Holen is always open, fortunately, and there's never any doubt as to the range of services provided. But for real financial institutions everywhere, ATMs will come under considerable pressure to do so much more at a time when any of us can become an ATM at any time to anyone, even if we are nothing more than a diligent parent.

About Richard Buckle

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Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.

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