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Banks are now busy reviewing the security arrangements at their ATMs in the wake of the attack on a customer in Bangalore last week.
Till recently, the decision to post a guard at an ATM depended on a bank’s perception about the risks to its assets/cash in that location.
“But now, we need to look for new guidelines as the customers also needed to be protected,” M. Bhagavantha Rao, Managing Director, State Bank of Hyderabad, told Business Line here. The bank is in the process of roping in more security agencies to get guards posted at all its ATMs across States.
State Bank of India, which has the largest network of ATMs, is also working on the same.
“Actually, all our off-site ATMs have got security. However, sometimes, the guards could be absent. We are conducting meetings with security service providers to ensure continuous presence of guards,” C. R. Sasikumar, Chief General Manager, SBI, said.
The first priority for banks, however, is to arrange for guards at ATMs in Bangalore as the State Government has ordered shutdown of unmanned ATMs. Already, over 700 ATMs have been shutdown by the police as banks failed to post guards.
Cost matters
According to an official of a leading private bank, which has a number of unmanned off-site ATMs, banks should not be made liable for the entire security.
“There is a cost angle to it, as each ATM will need three guards. If we are doing everything, then what are the police for? The cost will ultimately be passed on to customers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the customers, especially women, are a worried lot. As some banks have more than one ATM in the same kiosk, there is little privacy and one cannot be sure of the intention of the other person in the room, said P. Malathi, a Polaris employee, after coming out of an Axis Bank ATM here.
Discipline needed
The mere presence of security is not enough; proper discipline must be ensured, said P. Raghu, a customer. “We often come across guards who are drunk or asleep.’’
According to Reserve Bank of India data, there were 1.14 lakh ATMs in the country as on March 2013, a 19.2 per cent growth over the previous year.
naga.gunturi@thehindu.co.in
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