Hiring guards for ATMs too costly for banks
Hiring security guards to watch over automated teller machines in Cebu City would be too costly and unnecessary for banks.
Compelling banks to do so would also result in an increase in transaction fees, the president of the Cebu Bankers Club told the City Council yesterday.
Attending the City Council hearing on the proposed measure, Cebu Bankers Club president Gino Gonzalez said the 700 ATMs in the city are equipped with built-in cameras and keypad covers to combat ATM card skimmers.
Gonzalez also warned that banks may opt to reduce the number of ATMs in the city and shut down ATMs at night so as to decrease their operating costs.
As such, Gonzalez urged the City Council to junk the measure proposed by Councilor Noel Wenceslao.
Chief Insp. Aileen Recla of the Cebu City Police Office said they haven’t received any reports of ATM fraud in Cebu City since last year.
Police said they received six complaints from people who got robbed after making withdrawals from ATMs from Jan. 2013 to July 2014.
Transfer
Wenceslao said his proposed ordinance was meant to secure ATM users because banking institutions have the responsibility to ensure the safety of the funds it held in trust for their depositors.
“It is for this reason that banks have been extra vigilant in instituting the necessary measures to mitigate, if not obliterate, the attendant risk of our bank clientele when transacting through the ATMs,” Gonzalez said.
He said banks deploy guards to also check on ATMs and deter the presence of suspicious looking people in their premises.
Banks are also finalizing the migration from the use of magnetic strip cards to adopting the use of EMV capable cards or those equipped with a chip-based technology developed by Europay, Master Card and Visa.
Gonzalez said if banks would be required to assign security guards on ATMs, it would cost them an additional P35,000 per month to pay three security guards who will work on three shifts.
Costs
Banks spend P95,000 to maintain an ATM a month.
The cost doesn’t include the P18,000 annual property tax that banks pay to the government.
Other costs include space rental (approximately P20,000) armored car and manpower cost to service the machines (P20,000) and amortization for the machines (P20,000).
Gonzalez said the cost of operating ATMs could barely be up to par with revenues of P11 for withdrawals made from banks other than the cardholder’s depository bank.
Of the P11 charge, P8 is kept by the bank that maintains the machine where the withdrawal was made.
Bancnet gets a one peso share while the remaining P2 goes to the bank which issued the ATM card.
ATMs make an average of P2,000 to P3,000 a month.
Gonzalez said a machine earns P7,200 for the maintaining bank.
This means losses of about P52,800 per month.
Related Stories:
‘Let guards watch over ATM users’
BSP exec gives tips on avoiding ATM fraud
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
