NCR Corp., one of the two largest ATM manufacturers, is hard at work on a prototype ATM that it hopes will enable financial institutions to better reach out to underserved populations and help bring ATMs up to a new standard.

The trend among industrialized world ATM deployers has been toward ATMs steadily doing more like imaging deposits, cross selling other products or services, selling stamps and tickets,  or paying bills. And, in general, U.S consumers have largely resisted these trends, declining to pay bills or buy stamps and often feeling annoyed at advertisements that keep them from receiving their money quickly.

But Lyle Sander, NCR's vice president of design and consumer experience, said the firm's new prototype "pillar ATM" will reverse many of these trends, taking no deposits, not really selling anything else and not having screens to market anything. It won't even have a  keypad for the ubiquitous PIN.