I lived in Japan for two years during the 70's and that was my first experience with ATM machines. I'd never seen them before that. Later, I had a chance to visit again in 1996 and found something strange. There were still plenty of ATM machines, but while they'd been used to extend service for US banks, they were largely still just automated tellers in Japan. The most telling hint: they only operated when the bank was open. You had to get money out of them during banking hours. I was reminded of this story listening to Tom Parenty's discussion with Doug Kaye on IT Conversations. Tom said "If you want to find opportunities in which information security can promote innovations, focus on removing limitations of time, locale, and scale." He goes on:
http://www.windley.com/2004/03/29.html#a1132 IT conversations - Audio and transcripts of interviews and important events