Banks back crime decline

The banks' comment followed an announcement by Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa that bank robberies dropped by 29.2%, while ATM attacks dropped by 10%.

"The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) and the banks welcome the decrease in bank robberies and say that this decrease is largely attributable to the efforts of the security divisions of the banks in their partnership with the Saps.

"The successes of our partnerships with the police are already noticeable, especially in the ATM environment where there has been a significant reduction in ATM attacks with explosives for this year," said Sabric CEO Kalyani Pillay in a statement.

Happy with minister

He said it was encouraging that the minister was willing to work with the banking industry in a bid to find crime prevention strategies.

"The willingness of the minister to work with the banks and CiT (cash in transit) industry via Sabric, in finding strategies and implementing joint initiatives, by way of private-public partnerships to fight crime, is a positive development," said Pillay.

Releasing the police's crime statistics for the 2008/09 financial year, Mthethwa said CiT robberies had declined by 2.3% during the period, which ended on March 31 this year.

But Sabric said CiT crimes have to date increased by 18%.

"The CiT industry crime information managed by Sabric shows a year-to-date increase of 18 percent in this crime type. This remains a great cause for concern, and Sabric, on behalf of the CiT industry, is in earnest engagement with the SAPS in a quest for sustainable solutions to prevent and combat these crimes," said Pillay.

- Sapa