Creation 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. 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".
Growth and Independence In 1988 CoreStates acquired and integrated MAC competitor CashStream, making MAC the second-largest regional ATM network, behind only
NYCE. 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. These were later joined by
KeyCorp and
National City Corp. Acquisition and Merger with STAR Through the 1990s EPS expressed its desire to go public, either by issuing an
IPO or by being acquired by a
publicly traded company. The latter happened in 1999 when publicly traded
Concord EFS acquired EPS for $920 Million. 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
Revival of the Name 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. This product was discontinued when JetPay was acquired by
NCR Corporation in 2018. == Legacy ==