Cash station

June 13, 2007

cash station /kash STAY shun/ n. An ATM in Chicago. Origin: The name "Cash Station" was coined by First National Bank of Chicago's ad agency in 1979 and used for a network of automated bank machines in seven Midwestern states. The network was sold in 2001 and its machines were to adopt the STAR logo. But Chicago has resisted. An estimated 1,000 "Cash Station" signs remain here because banks know Chicagoans will better recognize them, says former Cash Station CEO Steve Cole. The generic use of "cash station" is a Chicago thing. "People tell me they go to New York and say, 'Where's the nearest Cash Station machine?' And people look at them and say, 'What the hell is that?'" Cole said.