First National Bank (FNB) has invested R100-million to fight ATM fraud over the next three years, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
FNB chief executive Mike Arnold said the R100-million would ”beef up” security at more than 3 000 ATMs countrywide.
”Target our ATMs, and we will catch you and make you pay the price,” said Arnold.
The bank’s ”tough on crime” stance, revealed on Tuesday, involves a R66-million investment in ATM surveillance cameras over three years.
Arnold said the initial installation at 500 ATM sites across the country had already commenced, with successful pilots in Port Elizabeth, East London, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria. These had led to 148 completed cases and 17 criminal convictions.
He said the bank’s tried and tested method of ATM surveillance would help the bank nab criminals ”red handed”, increasing the chance of successful convictions and putting criminals away for longer periods of time.
”Enough is enough. Our message is loud and clear to all those criminals even contemplating taking us on.
”We’ve tested the route of surveillance and we assure perpetrators that we do have the technology, backing and skills to not only identify them, but to prosecute them successfully as well,” said Arnold.
The pilot of surveillance cameras was carried out at 138 ATM sites last year in collaboration with a private service provider and the police.
During this period the bank said it had reduced ATM-related criminal losses dramatically.
Arnold said video footage was monitored real time by an expert security team looking for evidence of crimes such as card skimming, armed robbery, card swapping and the use of explosives to gain access to cash in ATMs.
Where incidents of criminal activity were suspected, footage was handed over to the police to investigate, he said.
According to the bank’s criminal-incident record, 624 cases were registered with the police by the bank. Of these, 148 cases had been successfully completed and 17 people had been convicted. Nineteen were awaiting trial.
Arnold said the bank’s message to criminals came at a time when ATM security in South Africa was seen as vulnerable. He said a number of financial institutions were facing economic losses due to the ”spate” of criminal explosive attacks on ATMs in the recent past.
”The increase in explosives attacks on ATMs is a very real threat to the industry but, together with the sound investment made by the bank, the SAPS [South African Police Service] has made and will continue to make successful arrests,” he said. — Sapa