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The Bangalore ATM attack has forced bankers to rethink their plans on ATM management.
Some of the banks that decided to post security guards at their ATMs even before the Bangalore ATM attack case express satisfaction with their decision.
A spokesperson of an old generation private sector bank in Karnataka said that the bank took a conscious decision to post a security guard at its ATMs when it decided to expand the network.
It has cost the bank a few thousand extra, but the board felt that security at the ATMs is a top priority vis-à-vis savings on cost. “This decision has helped us, when others went in search of agencies to provide security at the ATMs,” an executive of the bank said.
Kalyan Mukherjee, Chief General Manager of State Bank of Mysore (SBM), said that SBM has ATMs in over 100 locations in Bangalore.
“All these ATMs are guarded 24x7. They all have one set of camera and a second set is being fitted in these ATMs. The Bangalore Police Commissioner has given us 45 days to have the second camera fitted at all the ATMs. We are in the process of acquiring them,” he said, adding ‘none of the ATMs has been shut till date (in Bangalore).
Some bankers however differ on this issue.
A Kerala-headquartered bank’s executive opined that a guard would not be able to do much when attackers barge in and tie him up. “We have therefore used technology to ensure that our ATMs provide a safe-haven to the user. It is monitored round the clock. Tampering the machine will set off an alarm. There have been one or two such incidents in the past, and we have managed to get hold of the culprit,” the official said.
Elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, Karur Vysya Bank decided to down shutters at some of its ATMs between 10 pm and 6 am. “We observed and found that these ATMs recorded ‘nil’ hits during night hours, the last three months. The board therefore decided to keep them under lock and key during night hours,” the executive said, preferring anonymity.
The KVB source said that 280 ATMs have been identified as having 'nil' hits during night hours. The bank is continuing this exercise of identifying ATMs having poor hit rate during night hours.
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