Woman attacked in ATM booth; need for tighter security

In a bone-chilling incident on Tuesday, a 38-year old woman was assaulted by a man inside an ATM Kisok in Bengaluru. But even as pressure to tighten security builds up, the banking industry say spending Rs 365 crore a month on deployment of security personnel at ATMs is an unviable option, reports CNBC-TV18’s Gopika Gopakumar.

What makes it worse is that the incident happened early Tuesday morning, in the heart of Bengaluru city. The Indian bank association says ATM security is the responsibility of the bank but is quick to add that no bank is required to provide round-the-clock security at these kiosks, when other security measures are available.
But the incident has banks rattled and IBA will take this matter up with bankers at a meeting next week. However, bankers argue that providing 24*7 security for ATMs is not a viable option, saying deploying security guards at one kiosk costs anywhere between Rs 25,000-30,000 per month. But ATM industry body CATMi says the safety of customers should outweigh the costs.
Thyagarajan Seshadri, general secretary, CATMi says “The very fact that the ATMs are prone to such high level of risk for customer in general has to be really taken into account and considered by those respective financial institutions to provide proper security and cover for customers to do a free transaction in a way that customer is happy.”
The other issue is that many banks go in for tighter security only in sensitive areas and kiosks in crowded areas like malls and high-streets are often left unmanned.
This may now have to change. Experts say more and more instances of thefts and assaults at ATMs are being reported in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. In light of Tuesday's attack, the Karnataka home minister has already called for a shut down of all ATMs that do not have security personnel or guards be deployed at each of the 9700 ATMs in the state. But for banks the second option works out to a monthly outgo of Rs 29 crore. If every ATM in the country has to be manned, the banking sector will have to shell out over Rs 365 crore a month.