News

TYME Corp. reaches 25-year mark

February 18, 2004

BROWN DEER, Wis. – Time is on their side.

One of the country's largest regional EFT networks,TYME Corporation, is celebrating 25 years in the business.The company has an inventory of more than 27,000 ATMs and POS locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

"We've come a long way since Fritz Ruf completed the first TYME transaction on Dec. 1, 1976, withdrawing $20 from what was then a First Wisconsin National Bank ATM on Water Street, in downtown Milwaukee," said James H. Martin, TYME president.

Ruf, who now heads the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency, remains on the TYME board of directors.

"Using the network has become second nature to most people. Moreover, they want everything electronically delivered," Martin said.

These days, stamps and other non-cash items are dispensed at TYME ATMs. In addition to ATMs, TYME POS terminals can be found in many grocery stores in Wisconsin and in department stores, post offices, convenience stores and gas stations. POS allows a person not only to pay for purchases using a TYME card, but to receive cash back as well.

First Wisconsin (now Firstar), M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank, Marine Bank (now Bank One-Milwaukee) and Midland National Bank (now U.S. Bank-Milwaukee) were the driving forces behind TYME, which, in 1975, when it was created, was one of the first electronic funds transfer (EFT) networks in the country. In just four years, TYME was able to return the initial capital investment of $1 million to the four founding members.

TYME reached one million transactions per month in May 1982. Four years later, the company handled 2 million transactions per month. TYME has processed more than 1 billion transactions to date.

TYME hopes to replicate in Minnesota what it has accomplished in Wisconsin. Recently, it began a marketing and sales push in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. "We have seven financials already on board in Minnesota and we feel the time is right to intensify our efforts there," he says.

Accomplishments during TYME's first 25 years include installing the first POS terminal -- a card-activated gas pump in Milwaukee -- in 1983; thecreation of Nationet, the first nationwide ATM and POS network in 1983; and the reconfiguration of its telecommunications network in 1986 and 1993, resulting in lower costs to its financial participants.