Banks are almost most secure institutions with the highest security protection level in the world and are seen as unbeatable by the public. People entrust banks with their fortunes and believe problems will never happen to a bank. But unfortunately, this is not the truth, banks sometimes have bigger problems than what the public thinks. To help banks and financial institutions win the battle with increased security concerns, the necessity of deploying top-grade video surveillance systems should be apparent. Thanks for the innovations in digital technology and artificial intelligence, many banks are looking to increase the effectiveness of their surveillance systems.
Benefits of Smart Surveillance Equipments for Financial Institutions
Robbery Prevention – Bank robberies are serious and potentially dangerous crimes, small bank branches continue to be targeted by criminals. A properly installed video surveillance system with alarm and access control system integrated can help to deter robberies, decrease the reward for the robber and make it more likely that he or she will get caught. — in the worst scenario — provide footage evidence to police or investigators.
Cheque Fraud Prevention – IP surveillance systems equipped with artificial intelligence can analyze video streams, facial recognition will help to fight cheque fraud and reduce the workload of security personnel.
Integrated Security Solutions– Modern surveillance cameras are all IP based, can be integrated with management software like Milestone, IP based intercom system, access control system and burglar alarm system. Bank security systems are now highly integrated to achieve the best protection result.
Crime investigation – In events of robbery or fraud, footage recorded in bank surveillance system is important evidence to track down and finally identify suspects.
Continuous surveillance – Latest bank surveillance system support H.265/H.265+ technology, which is a high-efficiency video coding, can reduce 50% or even more bandwidth for the same video quality, make continuous surveillance of banking facilities without huge and expensive storage usage possible.
Enhanced customer confidence – Customers will only trust a bank when they feel the bank can secure itself, and this is the reason all Australia big banks spent lots of money to invest in their security system.
Coordinate info from multiple locations and remote access– Modern bank surveillance cameras are usually controlled by management software such as Milestone, which provides nearly unlimited integration possibilities on an open platform. Different branches can share data, or send all data to a centralized management center for monitoring.
Improved Intelligence and Data recognition– New intelligent functionalities are not just limited to motion detection, facial recognization, and number plate recognization, there are more excited functions available from real-time video analytics, such as camera tamper detection, object removed detect, object left detect, line crossing, intrusion detection, slip/fall detection, queue length calculator and people counting functions.
Digital storage – All IP based surveillance system can cooperate with network infrastructures, which means deploying a Milestone server is as simple as deploying an application server, actually Milestone platform is running on the same way as other server systems, you will be able to share storage and management from your IT infrastructure, and don't have to pay too much attention as what you do on tradition Linux based DVR systems.
Risk Analysis
Prevent tampering – The basic security setup to prevent any tampering attempts starts from an IK10 grade vandal proof camera system, cooperated with integrated access control and alarm systems. Also, the bank building should be protected by enough security personnel and meet the physical security criteria for financial facilities. Centralised security control room with Offsite backup strategy also essential to reduce tampering thread.
Protect Privacy – In Sydney, the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 regulates the installation, use, maintenance and retrieval of surveillance devices. Furthermore, there are critical privacy laws listed but not limited as below:
The Surveillance Devices Act 2004 if the surveillance devices used by Australian Government agencies.
The Privacy Act 1988, The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979
The Workplace Surveillance Act 2005
Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act)
Considerations
Sydney Security Cameras has experience working with Bank's technology department to design, install and maintain a time proven successful surveillance solutions for big bank branches. In order to sufficiently protect a bank branch or financial institution with a video surveillance system, we will go through some important factors, which is not limited to the factors listed, with bank branch management, security, and tech department to complete a detailed design and get approval before installation:
- Is the bank sharing any area of the building with other institution or has occupied the whole building? where are the security boundaries? Is there a basement garage or car park attached to the bank building?
- Are 24/7 ATMs outside of the premise or inside within a self-service ATM room?
- What about the on-site security personnel? Do they arrange enough manpower, equipped with all the necessary tools and devices?
- What security measures are taken additionally during non-trading hours?
- What is the office layout designed? Are tellers positioned behind windows, or out in the area open to the public?
- What type of surveillance systems are currently in place? Are they willing to keep part of the existing systems or prefer a brand new system?
- what is the integration requirements with other security methods or systems?
- what is the data transfer requirements between branch and control center from head office?
- Any budget limitations, special requirements?
Common Video Surveillance Covered Areas
Use wide-angle extremely high-resolution cameras to provide an overall view of lobby without losing details. Make sure all areas around the bank building are thoroughly monitored by UHD cameras. Capture footage of all bank transactions by properly positioned motorised varifocal cameras monitoring every teller area. Situate Super WDR cameras at all ATMs to gather clear pictures of individual customer faces and avoid strong backlight to darken the pictures. Consider investing in advanced artificial intelligence smart cameras with face recognition and objects detection functions to assist in identifying and tracking specific individuals and spotting suspicious activities. Place monitors and cameras at entrances in order to capture the footages of each bank customer and show people their face pictures have been captured and recorded to reduce potential issues.