The Bangladesh Bank directive to commercial banks on putting in place precautionary measures to check bank robberies is a heartening one. In a recent circular the central bank has asked the country's banks to install security cameras in and around their branch buildings to ensure safety of the bank vaults.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) circular comes at a time when the clients and bank-related people are still reeling from the shocks caused by some daring heists in the recent times. The year 2014 saw three incidents of breaking into bank vaults in Kishoreganj, Joypurhat and Bogra. Of the three, two occurred at a state-owned commercial bank's branches in the year.
In the circular released on 17 November, BB's Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD) asked the bank authorities to install sufficient numbers of security and surveillance cameras including CCTVs, IP cameras or spy-cameras with digital video recording system at the bank-branch entrances and inside the buildings. The directive in the circular emphasised placing these surveillance devices outside the bank-branches as well.
In the times when criminal activities rule the roost in various sectors in society, bank break-ins and heists are nothing unusual. Perhaps that's why, the crimes of bank-related small and massive frauds, muggings and currency note forgeries are so frequent in the country. Our acquaintance with these crimes notwithstanding, bank robberies in particular had virtually been out of public thoughts until it started taking place in the country. The first of these incidents took place in the capital in 2002.
The very desperate and ingenious nature of the heist could put it on the list of the world's most sensational bank robberies. The incident had around a dozen people residing in a hotel room just above a bank chamber with lockers. The robbers bored through the hotel room's floor to make a hole that allowed them to enter the lockers' chamber below. The robbers looted a sizeable volume of gold ornaments. It was followed by three mind-boggling thefts in 2014. Those involved criminals who dug mid-length tunnels beneath the floor of rented buildings to connect the nearby banks. Using hidden passages, the thieves crawled up to the bank vaults in the dead of night. With no guards or watchmen around, the thieves were able to flee with the stolen cash comfortably. However, law enforcement agencies later arrested most of the criminals involved in the act.
As the clients feel, the authorities of different banks and their branches should have swung into action since the first heist occurred in the country in 2002. Moreover, as the robbery incidents began assuming the proportions of a spell in 2014, the central bank ought to have worked out necessary guidelines for the safety of the country's bank branches. Bangladesh Bank's directives to the financial institutions carry a definite value. The banks may drag their feet in taking effective measures to prevent heists. This eventually leaves bank clients in the lurch. They have none to turn to -- except the regulatory central bank.
Given the chronic insufficiency of the capacity of law enforcement infrastructure, bank-branches always suffer from insecurity. Besides, well-equipped and trained private guards are not always handy. The private individual security personnel, along with their salaries and sophisticated arms, also involve added funds. Bank-branches in the suburban and rural areas acutely suffer from these drawbacks. Against this backdrop overridden by security lapses, the one-off expenditure on surveillance devices appears to be affordable by the financial institutions concerned.
Due to its being binding on the banks, the BB directive will, hopefully, prompt them to shake off their sloth.
shihabskr@ymail.com