Abstract: The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) displayed an automated teller machine with World Wide Web capabilities and other new levels of service. The first version of the machines are scheduled for pilot testing during summer 1997 and will have a few new options besides the usual ATM service. For example, customers can choose the language for the transactions, color of the screen and the list of options that they want to see. The Web ATMs will eventually have capabilities to print money orders, stock certificates, savings bonds and insurance forms on secured micro-coded paper. The machines will also provide access to the Web with cards and passwords to ensure security. CIBC is building the ATM system using the technology developed by Applied Communications Canada and Tandem Computers Canada.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Computerworld, Inc.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) recently demonstrated a prototype of a Web-enabled automated teller machine that promises to bring new levels of service and flexibility to standard teller machines.
But it will be a while before customers can access all the capabilities the systems will offer.
The machines will have World Wide Web browser interfaces but will use bank cards and passwords for security. They eventually will let users buy airline tickets, stocks and mutual funds.
"We want to give our customers far more choice in terms of financial and other services they can access" from a teller machine, said Joseph Heim, a spokesman for CIBC in Toronto. "The intranet offers us a great way to do so." CIBC is Canada's second-largest bank, with assets of $218 billion Canadian (about $156 billion U.S.) and a nationwide network of more than 3,100 automatic business machines (ABM), as teller machines are called in Canada. An early version of the machines will offer customers at least a few new functions besides the usual ABM options.Pilot-testing will begin this summer, said Terry Davies, vice president of self-serve banking at CIBC. Customers will be able to choose the color of the screen, the language in which to conduct transactions and the options the machine will present to them each time they use an ABM. For example, customers who consistently withdraw a fixed amount of cash can set their options so the machine will automatically ask them if they want to withdraw that amount each time, Davies said.
The touch-screen Web ABMs eventually will be able to print stock certificates, money orders, insurance forms and savings bonds on micro-encoded secured paper. The ABMs also will let the bank simultaneously load new screen graphics, features and applications into each teller machine. Currently, almost all teller machines have to be upgraded individually. "The question really is, `How many features can we add to an ABM before it starts impeding the basic functions an ABM was put there for?"' Davies said. Too many features could create long usage times and long queues at the machines, he said.
"When you think about it, it is not such a big stretch after all," said James Greene, an analyst at Summit Strategies, Inc. in Boston. "There is useful information out there on the Web, which banks can easily patch on to their customers" via a teller machine. CIBC is building the system with technology from Tandem Computers Canada Ltd. and Applied Communications Canada, Inc. (see chart), both in Toronto. NCR Corp. in Dayton, Ohio, will supply the hardware for the machines.