| Operating area | Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern United States |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
Money Access Center (MAC, also Money Access Card) was an ATM network in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern United States, between 1979 and 2005, when it was absorbed into the STAR network. The network was one of the first in the nation, and helped universalize ATM banking. At its height MAC operated 59,000 ATMs [1] in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.
MAC was launched in 1979 by the Philadelphia National Bank (PNB), later renamed CoreStates, to compete with the GEORGE network, which was launched one year earlier by Girard Bank. [2] [3] PNB was able to line up support from thirteen other financial institutions at launch, capturing significantly more market share than GEORGE, to the point that the locals preferred the terms "MAC machine" and "MAC card" to "ATM" or "ATM card".
In 1988 CoreStates acquired and integrated MAC competitor CashStream, making MAC the second-largest regional ATM network, behind only NYCE. [4] In 1992 CoreStates created a holding company for MAC, called Electronic Payment Services (EPS), headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The company was co-owned by CoreStates, Bank One, PNC Bank, and Society Corporation. [5] These were later joined by KeyCorp and National City Corp. [6]
Through the 1990s EPS expressed its desire to go public, either by issuing an IPO or by being acquired by a publicly traded company. [7] The latter happened in 1999 when publicly-traded Concord EFS acquired EPS for $920 Million. [6] This turned out to be a very profitable deal for Concord, so it acquired two more ATM networks in the next two years, Cash Station and STAR, which expanded Concord's networks to 28 states. [8] In its press-release about the acquisition of STAR in 2001 Concord announced its intent to consolidate the three networks under the STAR banner due to STAR's better name recognition, making STAR the largest ATM network in the country. The MAC (and Cash Station) banner was to be phased out over a period of four years [1]
In 2014, JetPay, founded by Bipin Shah, who ran the MAC network while working at CoreStates, announced a product called Money Access Card, a reloadable payment card for JetPay's payroll-processing-company clients. [9] This product was discontinued when JetPay was acquired by NCR Corporation in 2018.
MAC Machine and MAC Card continue to be used to refer to ATMs and ATM cards respectively as a regionalism in certain parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with the phrase tap MAC to describe getting money from an ATM. [10]
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either the front or the back. Many new cards now have a chip on them, which allows people to use their card by touch (contactless), or by inserting the card and keying in a PIN as with swiping the magnetic stripe. Debit cards are similar to a credit card, but the money for the purchase must be in the cardholder's bank account at the time of the purchase and is immediately transferred directly from that account to the merchant's account to pay for the purchase.
Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale, abbreviated as EFTPOS, is the technical term referring to a type of payment transaction where electronic funds transfers (EFT) are processed at a point of sale (POS) system or payment terminal usually via payment methods such as payment cards. EFTPOS technology was developed during the 1980s.
An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account information inquiries, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff.
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
CoreStates Financial Corporation, previously known as Philadelphia National Bank (PNB), was an American bank holding company in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area.
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An ATM card is a dedicated payment card card issued by a financial institution which enables a customer to access their financial accounts via its and others' automated teller machines (ATMs) and, in some countries, to make approved point of purchase retail transactions. ATM cards are not credit cards or debit cards, however most credit and debit cards can also act as ATM cards and that is the most common way that banks issue cards since the 2010s.
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Electronic Payment Services, commonly known as EPS, is an electronic payment system based in Hong Kong, Macau, and with limited acceptance in Shenzhen since it began operations in 1985. The service is provided by EPS Company Limited which currently has over 30,000 acceptance locations.
Network for Electronic Transfers, colloquially known as NETS, is a Singaporean electronic payment service provider. Founded in 1986 by a consortium of local banks, it aims to establish the debit network and drive the adoption of electronic payments in Singapore. It is owned by DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank (UOB).
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National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an Indian public sector company that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India. The organization is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in India.
Vocalink is a payment systems company headquartered in the United Kingdom, created in 2007 from the merger between Voca and LINK. It designs, builds and operates the UK payments infrastructure, which underpins the provision of the Bacs payment system and the UK ATM LINK switching platform covering 65,000 ATMs and the UK Faster Payments systems.
Venmo is an American mobile payment service founded in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2013. Venmo is aimed at users who wish to split their bills. Account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app; both the sender and receiver must live in the United States. Venmo also operates as a small social network, as users can observe other users' public transactions with posts and emoticons. In 2021, the company handled $230 billion in transactions and generated $850 million in revenue. Users can view transactions on the Venmo website but cannot complete transactions on the website.
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