A bank server allows a user of one ATM to reserve cash at another, nearby ATM when the first ATM has an inadequate cash inventory to serve the user's requested transaction. The user attempts to withdraw cash from the first ATM, but the first ATM has insufficient cash to perform the withdrawal transaction. Through the first ATM, the bank server offers the user a cash reservation at the other ATM. The bank server causes the other ATM to reserve a requested amount of cash for the user, possibly refusing to dispense cash to other users if doing so would leave the other ATM with insufficient cash to dispense the reserved cash. The user travels a short distance to the other ATM and withdraws the reserved cash. In effect, the other ATM can now perform the withdrawal transaction requested of the first ATM when the first ATM couldn't.