ATM blasts have increased in recent years. Banks and savings banks therefore want to defend themselves against the practice with various security measures. The explosive actions not only lead to considerable damage to property.
Banks and savings banks in Germany want to strengthen their protective measures against ATMs being blown up because of the increased number of attacks. This emerges from the draft of a joint statement by the “Round Table on ATM Blows” under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. “The crime phenomenon of ATM blasting has recently become a worrying trend,” the statement said.
According to this, 414 ATM demolitions were recorded in 2020, a year later there were 392. These are the two highest number of cases since the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) began collecting statistics in 2005. The preliminary figures for the first half of 2022 set a new annual high expect. One possible reason for this is that a large proportion of the perpetrators come to Germany from the Netherlands after extensive preventive measures have been implemented there.
“In addition to significant property damage, the increasing use of explosives poses a particularly high risk to the life and limb of bystanders,” the paper says. For example, two residents were slightly injured in a recent automated blast in Neuss. According to the paper, the banking industry is committed to prioritizing and implementing a combination of different preventive measures depending on the location and risk analysis. This includes, for example, no longer granting access to ATMs in the anterooms of branches between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Intruder alarm systems in the self-service foyer and video surveillance of ATMs and the foyer are mentioned as further measures. Reducing the maximum amount of cash could also represent an effective preventive measure. This also included so-called coloring systems. In the event of an alarm, the money contained in the cash cassettes would be colored and thus rendered largely unusable. Locations where there is a particularly high risk potential for uninvolved third parties in the event of a blast should be avoided if possible “if the risks cannot be reduced appropriately by appropriate measures,” says the paper.
Representatives of the German banking industry, the Bundesbank, the General Association of the German Insurance Industry, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and other security authorities took part in the “round table on ATM blasts”.
