Surveillance for Banks

Video Security for Banks & Credit Unions

Bank security systems are the digital cornerstones of teller and bank customer safety. At a fundamental level, installing security cameras gives safety and surveillance teams visibility into events that occur at a given ATM, bank, or credit union location.

Due to the large number of monetary transactions that occur on a daily basis in financial institutions, it’s imperative that security cameras cover all transaction areas. In any event where customer assets are compromised, security camera footage is critical in helping law enforcement understand, and appropriately pursue the incident.

Jump to each section to learn more:

• How is Surveillance Technology used in Banks?

• Must-Have Features for Bank Surveillance Systems

• How Banks Benefit from Surveillance Technology

• How do Security Guards & Loss Prevention Officers use Video Surveillance?

• How do Bank Managers use Security Systems?

• How do Bank Customers Benefit from Video Security?

• Final Takeaways about Bank & ATM Safety

How is Surveillance Technology used in Banks?

• Deter Theft, Robbery, and Vandalism: Installing video security systems is a logical way for a financial institution like a bank to decrease the frequency of on-site criminal activity. Security systems are essential for deterring potential offenders planning robbery attempts, vandalism, larceny, assault, fraud, or any other types of malicious or suspicious behavior. Ideally, all places and areas accessible by the general public would be covered by security cameras.
• Protect Remote ATMs from Crime: Remote ATM locations that aren’t outfitted with video security cameras are especially vulnerable to criminal activities such as robbery, larceny, and vandalism. By extending surveillance footage to all remote ATM sites, banks can provide customers with more frequent, convenient locations while discouraging thieves and vandals.
• Monitor Critical Areas: The more widespread bank security cameras are, the more useful they can be in discouraging crime; security personnel should therefore aim to fully cover bank sites. At the very least, security teams should prioritize coverage of high-stakes, high-traffic areas like bank entrances, teller windows, ATMs, bank vaults, bathrooms, hallways, and parking lots.
• Maintain Awareness Around the Clock: Ensuring full, 24-hour coverage of bank locations ensures footage is recorded no matter the time of day. In addition to capturing all activity and incidents, recorded footage can even mitigate or prevent future activity by providing security personnel with alerts or analytics to log unauthorized activity outside of business hours.
• Sense of Safety for Staff & Customers: Credibility and trust between banks and bank customers can take years to build, but it can be quickly shattered by a violent incident or nefarious accusation. Installing and maintaining reliable video surveillance systems minimizes the risk of incident, while equipping banks with video evidence to disprove accusations and maintain credibility.
• Proactively Detect Threats: With cameras covering both interior and exterior areas, security personnel can sharpen threat assessment efforts while capturing additional video footage of incidents that do occur.
• Resolve Incidents Quickly: Banks that don’t have a reliable video surveillance system in place are risking substantial financial losses and complications from incident liability. Resolving phantom ATM withdrawal or credit card skimming cases becomes a far more expensive, time-consuming, and challenging endeavor without video surveillance to easily exonerate banks.

Must-Have Features for Bank Surveillance Systems

• PCI Compliance: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) outlines bank requirements to ensure physical, network, and data security. PCI compliance regulations serve to protect credit cardholder data and reduce instances of fraud by requiring banks to monitor entry and exit points, verify CCTV cameras are tamper-proof and disable-proof, review and correlate data, provide at least 90 days of video data retention, and more.
• Night Vision: Whether a DVR system with analog cameras, an NVR system with IP cameras, or a hybrid cloud-based system, any security system monitoring areas with potential activity outside of business hours or after dark must have night vision functionality. If footage of this sort isn’t of usable quality, any nighttime activities or incidents will likely not be usable, and may not even be visible at all.
• Reliable, 24/7 Recording: Any video surveillance system that is less than fully reliable risks missing footage of critical incidents. When shopping for a bank security camera system, it’s critical to inquire not only about downtime prevalence and causes, but also about the downtime notification and recovery process. If, for instance, there’s no notification process, or if there’s a convoluted, location-based recovery process, sizable coverage gaps could expand bank liability and intercept incident resolution.
• Ability to Quickly Find & Share Footage: When a serious crime like a bank robbery or an assault occurs, having a streamlined, remote process in place to identify and share footage gives police the best chance at catching the suspect or suspects identified on that footage. Even under less urgent circumstances, inefficient footage retrieval and distribution processes can take time away from the other projects and responsibilities of the bank safety and security team.

How Banks Benefit from Surveillance Technology

Security & Loss Prevention

• Can detect suspicious behaviors and respond in real-time
• Can easily monitor bank locations outside of business hours
• Can use footage as evidence for incident resolution

Bank Managers

• Can monitor day-to-day operations and staff efficiency
• Can use footage of tellers and staff for training
• Can maintain complete, effortless PCI compliance

Bank Customers

• Can conduct bank visits more safely
• Can resolve submitted liability claims definitively and quickly
• Can maintain confidence and trust in bank

Final Takeaway About Bank & ATM Safety

Bank security cameras enable safety personnel to detect and prevent threats while optimizing customer loyalty and experience. Without a bank video surveillance system in place, managers risk relying on an incomplete understanding of an incident likely presented without context. From defining preventative bank security measures to enabling incident resolution, bank security systems can keep customers and staff as safe as they deserve to be.