News

ABA adds ATM crime reporting feature to bank robbery database

February 23, 2017

The American Bankers Association has added a new feature to its nationwide bank robbery database that allows subscribers to key in ATM crime data, including skimming attacks.

Adding this new capability to the ABA Bank Capture database provides more actionable intelligence to help reduce financial crime, the association said in a press release.

"ATM skimming can be a costly crime for banks, and it's becoming more and more sophisticated," said Doug Johnson, ABA senior vice president of payments and cybersecurity policy, in the release. "Studies show that criminals steal 10 times more money in the average skim vs. the average bank robbery. This new feature will be an incredibly helpful tool to help banks track patterns of criminal activity and effect preventative measures."

Other ATM crimes tracked by the system include jackpotting, card trapping, shimming and vandalism, the release said.

The database captures crime data from nearly 60 percent of the nation's 91,000 bank branches. This data is collected and analyzed, then made available to participants. ABA Bank Capture aggregates data in real-time, allowing banks to access information as it is reported.

The program is designed to help banks:

• get timely robbery and ATM crime alerts;
• benchmark against their peers;
• identify criminal activity trends and patterns;
• assess effectiveness of security controls; and
• better allocate resources to help prevent loss.