News

Widower starts push for ATM alert code

January 15, 2006

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:Since September, when his wife was killed in a carjacking, Michael Boyd has worked to change the laws that let her attacker go unnoticed. He's now turned his crusading energy toward the banking industry. After being carjacked, his wife was forced to withdraw money from an ATM, and Boyd says that was a missed opportunity for help. He's now pushing Georgia's General Assembly to pass a law that would require banks to create ATM panic codes.

Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) has introduced a bill that would require banks to adopt the reverse-code technology that silently alerts police when PINs are entered backwards. But the president of the Georgia Bankers Association said he doesn't think the General Assembly has the authority to make such a requirement. And even if the bill does pass, he added, the legislation would apply only to banks chartered in Georgia, excluding banking giants that account for a large share of business.