By Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Americans have embraced automated teller machines like few other products since they were first introduced widely 25 years ago, but it is a decidedly one-way romance.

While customers are happy to take cash from an ATM -- billions daily from an estimated 400,000 machines -- they are reluctant to give it back in the form of deposits, suspicious that their paycheck or cash might disappear and never be heard from again.

Last week Bank of America Corp. began testing in the Washington area of a high-tech ATM designed to allay those concerns and turn the machines into a steadier source of deposits.

Instead of filling out an envelope, customers insert each check separately. The computer scans them, and provides a digital image of each at the end of the transaction as a receipt. A separate slot for cash provides a count of each bill.

"Customers told us they want to be assured their deposits are received," said Diane J. Wagner, a spokeswoman for the bank. "It increases customer confidence in knowing their cash has been accepted, and now the proof is in their hand."

Bank of America isn't rolling out the new machines for purely benevolent purposes. Currently, only about 15 percent of ATM transactions involve deposits. According to Tower Group retail banking analyst Jerry Silva, increasing that percentage would allow banks to save money by reducing their paperwork, giving the bank use of the deposit more quickly and reducing fraud.

Think that means they'll cut back on ATM fees?