When Citibank launched its first ATM in Mumbai in the eighties, everybody went to see it, but nobody trusted it and people were reluctant to use it. Today, it has become part of life and an indispensable one for that. Now it's become a numbers game with every Indian bank doling out figures of the number of ATMs they have.It's almost become like a prestige issue apart from being a competitive scoring point.

Incidentally, the idea of self-service in retail banking developed through independent and simultaneous efforts in Japan, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom - and ATMs were born. No single company or country can take credit for its birth. Although Originally developed as just cash dispensers, they have evolved to include many other bank-related functions, including depositing of cash, payment of bills, account updates and almost everything you can physically do in a bank.