Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will use Web technology to sell new products and services through its ATMs.
The new Web ATMs will be available in a pilot this summer at six locations in Toronto.
"This is our continuous effort to improve the way customers interact with the bank," said Brian Chan, vice president of electronic banking for the $199 billion-asset company.
The machines will use high-security browsers developed for the Internet by Netscape Communications Corp. to give the look and feel of the World Wide Web. However, consumers will access Canadian Imperial's intranet, a "private and secure" network, said Mr. Chan.
Consumers will be able to buy bank products like mutual funds or apply for credit cards. There may be links to secure sites, such as airline home pages, where consumers could use their ATM or credit cards to purchase tickets that are dispensed on the spot.
The machines will also remember use habits. For example, if a customer always withdraws $100, the ATM will ask if the customer wants the usual transaction.
But Mr. Chan said the bank is taking care to protect its customers' privacy.
Some features of the new machines will be similar to those of home banking applications. Consumer research will be conducted over the next few months to determine what services would most appeal to customers.
A marketing campaign will be launched as the pilot nears, but Mr. Chan said the machines are so easy to use "people will never a need an instruction manual. If you can point at something and touch something, you can use it."
The bank developed the technology with NCR Canada Ltd., Tandem Computers Canada Ltd., and Applied Communications Canada Inc.
Using NCR ATMs, the bank can upgrade existing machines with touch screens and basic processor modules for under $7,000 each, said Steve White, NCR's vice president of financial systems in Canada.
Other costs, such as software development, were not disclosed.
David Weisman, senior analyst at Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., company, warned banks to "keep ATMs simple-don't clutter them with functions."
Mr. Weisman, who authored a report, "ATMs in an Online World," said, "Paying bills, checking stock portfolios, and buying tickets should be focused on an Internet home banking service."
He noted that consumers can use telephone and Internet services to purchase theater tickets, and airlines are pushing ticketless travel. Longer lines at ATMs would be annoying to those waiting for cash, he added.
Even so, Eric Strada, president of Electronic Commerce Strategies, a consulting firm in Atlanta, said, "I would react very positively to being able to purchase other things through the Web while I got my cash, as long as the bank didn't put prohibitive charges on it."
