50 years after Oklahoma’s first ATM, technology continues to transform banking

50 years ago, the first ATM was installed in Oklahoma, revolutionizing consumer finance. In today’s Your Money Matters, Michael Kelly, Executive Director of TransFund, shares insights into the evolution of ATMs and what the future holds for these banking machines.

Q: Let’s start with the concept of the ATM. How did it start, and how has it evolved?

A: "Well, BOK really needed to serve their customers outside of downtown [Tulsa]. And so we placed this first ATM in 1975 at 6700 South Yale at the Science Center. It was really just an offline ATM. If you had $150 in your bank account, like I do, and you took out $200, it didn’t know that you were overdrawn.

Computing power has changed so much in 50 years. Microprocessors back then had about 1,000 transistors on them. Today, a microprocessor has 80 billion. And so you can imagine the computing power allows us to do really anything we want with an ATM. You can think of an ATM as really a computer."

Q: What does TransFund view as the current function of an ATM? What’s the definition of the ideal ATM today?

A: "Well, it depends on how you want to serve your cardholders or how you want to serve your members within the C-store.

We have 1,000 ATMs, and they’re in QuikTrip, 7-Eleven, OnCue, and they’re basically for convenience — to get cash and get out. But we, as a bank, also want an ATM in a box, or a bank in a box, to do everything that you can do in a bank.

How you interact with that ATM — you can do it biometrically now with your phone, contactlessly. You can do your hand, your fingerprint, your face print. There’s all kinds of innovation coming. It really depends on what you’re trying to solve for.

You can also buy crypto, manage your crypto, stablecoins, buy bitcoin — there’s all kinds of functions you can solve for."

Q: What do you think will be the biggest advancement for ATMs and people getting money on the go in the next five to 10 years? What is TransFund looking at as the next big step?

A: "Well, we’re incorporating AI, and what you’re going to start to see is you’ll be able to actually apply for a loan, be approved for a loan, and actually get your funds right there. That’s new.

You’ll be able to, as I said, manage your crypto, interface with it contactlessly — whether you tap your card, whether you use your phone, whether you stage a transaction with a QR code — all kinds of advancements are coming. You’ll start to see those play out over the next five to 10 years."

Q: Do you see these ATMs of the future more often attached to a bank, or do you see more free-standing machines? What’s the future of ATM locations?

A: "Again, we look at the AI, the data — where do cardholders, where do people need those ATMs? And that’s where we’re going to place them.

Just like QuikTrip does all kinds of analytics on where to place a location, we do the same for an ATM. How do we want to serve our members from a credit union perspective? How do we want to serve our cardholders and customers from a bank perspective? So you’ll see them where you are."