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Vintage Toronto Ads: Cashing Out
Source: the Toronto Star, December 2, 1969.
Once upon a time, if you needed money, you couldn’t just go to a machine, slip in a card, and, health of bank account permitting, take out as much cash as required. If you weren’t able to visit your friendly neighbourhood bank branch during operating hours, c’est la vie. While most customers of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce would have filled out their bank slips and handed the teller their bankbooks as usual on December 1, 1969, those who signed up to use the ten automated cash dispensers put into service that day across Metropolitan Toronto received a glimpse of financial services of the future.
Customers using the newfangled cash dispenser began their transaction by unlocking a door to gain access to the machine. Next, they inserted a card, punched in a code, and waited for a packet containing thirty dollars (a sum one can’t request on most current Canadian ATMs) to be dispensed. If the customers wanted more than thirty dollars, they would have to make another withdrawal. As the Telegram noted, likely to the alarm of technophobes, “Computers control everything, recording withdrawals, showing remaining credit, and cutting off withdrawals when the limit is reached.”
Testing out a cash dispenser before it went into full service. The Telegram, November 28, 1969.
Amongst the major banks, CIBC remained the only one to offer a cash dispensing machine until the Royal Bank introduced the Bankette in 1972. Bank managers continued to be happy to see customers flow in to request access, but wondered in the back of their minds if the next visitor would be their last before their branch was automated out of existence.
Additional material from the November 28, 1969 edition of the Telegram.