An Overview of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs)

Abstract

Financial services firms, especially banks, provide financial products and payment services, which offer vehicles for inves_trnent of savings, and availability of credit, and consequently enable their customers to participate in the broader economy. Banks play an important role, not only as aJinancial intermediate serving depositors and borrowers and encouraging economic growth, but also in other activities. Banks have expanded their activities, which are reflected by the numbers of branches and number of ATMs. There are several factors that have been influencing and creating deep changes in the banking sector. Among these, we can highlight technological innovation, the increasing consumer's technological knowledge, the segmentation of the sector and the liberalization of the distribution systems. This way, it seems logical to accept that the continuous sophistication of the intra and interorganizational information systems can improve a firm's market position and also act as a potential determinant of profitability and, consequently, a strong source of competitive advantage. In this perspective, the ATMs have showed very strong growth. The main point of this paper is connected with the number of ATMs in the banking sector. Automated teller machines (ATMs) are often regarded as weapons which commercial and savings banks use to capture or protect deposit market shares in return for providing higher levels of convenience to their depositors. In general the number of ATMs depend on competitiveness in the banking sector.