An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, transfer funds, or obtaining account information, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff.
ATMs are known by a variety of names, including automatic teller machine in the United States (ATM, American, British, Australian, Malaysian, South African, Singaporean, Indian, Maldivian, Hiberno, Philippines and Sri Lankan English), often redundantly ATM machine, automated banking machine (ABM, Canadian English). Although ABM is used in Canada, ATM is still very commonly used in Canada and many Canadian organization used ATM over ABM. In British English, the terms cash point, cash machine, minibank (the official name of the Yorkshire bank ATMs), and "hole in the wall" are most widely used. Other terms include any time money, cashline, nibank, tyme machine, cash dispenser, bankomat or bancomat. Many ATMs have a sign above them, indicating the name of the bank or organisation that owns the ATM, and possibly including the networks to which it can connect. In Canada, ABMs that are not operated by a financial institution are known as "white-label ABMs".
According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), there are now close to 3.5 million ATMs installed worldwide. However, the use of ATMs in Australia is gradually declining – most notably in retail precincts.On most modern ATMs, customers are identified by inserting a plastic ATM card (or some other acceptable payment card) into the ATM, with authentication being by the customer entering a personal identification number (PIN), which must match the PIN stored in the chip on the card (if the card is so equipped), or in the issuing financial institution's database.
Using an ATM, customers can access their bank deposit or credit accounts in order to make a variety of financial transactions such as cash withdrawals, check balances, or credit mobile phones. ATMs can be used to withdraw cash in a foreign country. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the bank account is denominated, the money will be converted at the financial institution's exchange rate.