The Frankfurt savings banks have started deploying security personnel in their branches at night.
(Photo: IMAGO/snowfieldphotography)
Frankfurt, Mainz In the face of increasingly brutal demolitions of ATMs, the Frankfurter Sparkasse relies on protection by security personnel. “We have now introduced personal security,” said Sparkasse boss Ingo Wiedemeier on Thursday. It is about 28 locations with ATMs that are already closed at night anyway.
According to Wiedemann, the Sparkasse started doing this in January. Reason was the blowing up of an ATM in a branch located on the ground floor of a residential building in the Griesheim district of Frankfurt. The savings bank will stick to the guard “until peace returns,” said Wiedemann.
But even with surveillance, not all crimes can be prevented. At the end of last year, a gang in Koblenz attacked a security guard who wanted to confront them. The perpetrators had previously blown up the machine at the local savings bank. The security guard was injured and required medical attention.
“We are experiencing immense violence and brutality, which is also endangering human lives. Unfortunately, in this context there may also be restrictions on the availability of ATMs, for example at night,” said Thomas Hirsch, President of the Savings Banks Association of Rhineland-Palatinate, on Thursday.
The Volksbank Ruhr Mitte from Gelsenkirchen also recently decided to have their self-service foyers guarded temporarily. North Rhine-Westphalia is particularly affected by the blasts because most of the perpetrators come from the Netherlands.
In 2022 there were almost 500 attacks on ATMs
The step towards guarding branches makes it clear that the measures taken so far do not offer sufficient protection and do not sufficiently deter the perpetrators. The number of ATMs blown up has skyrocketed nationwide in the past year. There were almost 500 attacks in Germany – more than ever before.
The wave of attacks will continue in 2023. According to the Savings Banks Association of Rhineland-Palatinate, there have already been 15 blasts in the state since the beginning of the year. In the last full year there were a total of 56.
The explosive attacks cause enormous property damage. The buildings housing branches and ATM locations are often damaged. Sometimes the destruction is so great that structural engineers have to check the houses before you can enter them again.
Criminals use solid explosives for their mostly nightly attacks, known in technical jargon as “explosives” or “lightning bang bodies”. Experts consider it a fortunate coincidence that no bystanders have been seriously injured in the attacks, despite the debris and splinters flying around. In addition, the perpetrators flee with high-powered cars and up to 300 kilometers per hour, sometimes without lights. This is also very dangerous for bystanders.
The LKA North Rhine-Westphalia assumes that most of the crimes are committed by a criminal scene from the Netherlands, which is several hundred strong. The perpetrators came mainly from Moroccan-Dutch gangs “who mainly live in and around Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam”.
There is a struggle to use the bonding technique
The banks are now equipping many ATMs and self-service rooms with security technology on. The specific protective measures depend, among other things, on device types and locations. Video surveillance, vibration detectors and special security systems for windows and access doors are common, among other things. More and more often, the financial institutions close self-service locations completely from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. or empty the ATMs in the late afternoon.
In addition, banks are increasingly dismantling ATMs because of the blasts. At savings banks and cooperative banks, around 1,000 machines each will be gone in 2021. The Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken dismantled around 800 devices in 2022, but there are still no figures from the savings banks.
To deter criminals, banks can automatically discolor or glue banknotes in the event of an explosion. This should render the prey unusable for the attackers. Discoloration has been used for a long time, but by no means across the board. Commercial banks and the Bundesbank are currently struggling to find out exactly how the central bank could reimburse commercial banks for banknotes that were glued together.
Savings bank boss Wiedemann thinks it makes sense for the industry to be committed to a deterrent measure. He thinks that a legal regulation makes sense, according to which an ATM may only be operated if it uses a bonding or coloring technique that makes the notes unusable. “If it were allowed, we would use the technology,” Hirsch said about the bonding technique, which, unlike discoloration, is not yet allowed to be used in Germany.
The Netherlands is considered a role model because, among other things, bonding technology is used there and the number of blasts has decreased significantly. Before that, there had been many attacks for several years. The number of attacks fell from 129 in 2013 to nine last year. According to the Dutch Banking Association, there were only three in 2021.
More: At least one ATM is blown up every day