Barclays Bank put into use the first ATM in the world.
By the end of the 1950s, the global banking industry had settled on the technology standards that would lead to greater automation, adopting a system for machine-readable characters (patented in the U.S. for use with cheques) that would lead to the first automated reader-sorter machines. Banks began to invest heavily in IT as a way of reducing the manual processing traditionally carried out by a large clerical staff.
In 1967, Barclays became the first bank to build and install an Automated Teller Machine. Its so-called “robot cashier” allowed customers in London to withdraw money at any time of the day and, over the following decade, ATMs would proliferate and replace many of the functions carried out by bank tellers.