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RBI asks banks to step up ATM remote monitoring

September 5, 2012

An increase in crime at ATMs has prompted the Reserve Bank of India to request that all banks install remote monitoring devices that would automatically alert police to ATM tampering, and presumably shorten response times for ATM-related incidents.

ATM crime is still lower in India than in the West, said an article by the Business Standard. However, the central bank is worried that the rapid planned expansion of India's ATM networks will result in a corresponding increase in attacks on machines.

An official with the National Payments Corp of India told the Business Standard that his company monitored almost 95 percent of Indian ATMs within the payments system, and that they had seen an increase in both skimming and cash retraction fraud.

In response to a recent rash of crimes involving cash retraction, Indian banks are now in the process of disabling the retraction feature at their ATMs. The article said that banks should also add sophisticated anti-skimming devices to their ATMs to discourage an increase in skimming fraud. 

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