MELBOURNE, Australia -- Australian banks may be forced to employ security guards or use monitored video cameras at some ATMs to protect customers, under legislation designed to boost ATM security that may be introduced in Parliament later this year.
According to a report in the (Melbourne) Herald Sun, legislation is being drafted that would make it compulsory for banks to provide extra security, such as guards or monitored closed circuit video, at ATMs considered "high risk."
The Victorian government seems headed for a showdown with banks over ATM security following more than three years of negotiations with the Australian Bankers Association.
A last-ditch effort to reach agreement on security standards will take place later this month but if that fails, Police Minister Andre Haermeyer plans to introduce legislation in Parliament this year.
According to the Herald Sun, the two sides apparently have agreed on guidelines including locations, lighting and landscaping of ATMs -- but the sticking point appears to be guards and monitored video cameras.
Haermeyer said the banks owed it to their customers to increase security. "We all benefit from the convenience of ATMs... but the banks have saved squillions by pushing the risk outside their doors," he said. "I think the active surveillance is not an unreasonable request, at least as a trial at (popular and high risk) sites."
High risk sites the banks would be forced to test, according to the Herald Sun, include ATMs in entertainment areas and other places where they were used at night.
ABA chief executive David Bell said that while customer safety came first, the cost of either security guards or monitored video cameras would inevitably be passed on to customers.
Bell added that international experience showed that the proposed measures were not necessarily effective. "The issue is expense for what gain," he said.
