“Let a million ATMs bloom”

Big Blue is a big bull on China. Former Citibank man, Kent Price, now general manager for banking at IBM in Asia Pacific, has written a report forecasting an ATM revolution, with IBM at the forefront.

In From the Abacus to the atm: The Technological Revolution in Chinese Banking, Price can hardly contain his enthusiasm. “Letting a million ATMs bloom across China is the quickest way to get cash out of mattresses,” he writes, and adds: “We now have a vision of one billion bank accounts, tied together by the latest technology, into a smoothly humming, world-leading financial system, able to mobilize funds at the touch of a button across the vastness of China and beyond.