HA NOI — Thieves broke into an ATM in Vinh City in the central province of Nghe An Province last Thursday.
Local police caught the thieves red-handed but this latest ATM robbery, the fifth in the county in the last two months, has raised concerns about security at ATM kiosks.
A representative from Techcombank, one of the "victims" of the wave of ATM heists, said the bank had appointed guards at its ATM kiosks round the clock. It had also reduced withdrawal times at ATMs with few customers to limit the risk of robbery.
Many other banks have started to review the security of their ATM booths.
However, this short-term measure makes life difficult for customers and reduces the competitiveness of banks.
At the recent Banking Vietnam 2010 exhibition and conference in HCM City, many security measures were discussed, including the instalment of induction alarms at ATM booths.
Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) Nguyen Van Giau said that while most of the 49 foreign banks operating in Viet Nam used modern technology to ensure the safety of their ATM systems, domestic banks did not.
In fact, banks ignored the induction anti-theft system when buying ATMs although this technology was compatible with most machines, he said.
Marketing Director of Diebold Company in Viet Nam - a software solutions and ATM provider - Le Thanh Binh said its customers included 15 banks with more than 1,300 ATMs but only one bank used the induction anti-theft system.
Most banks thought that cameras at ATM booths provided enough safety and were adequate when it came to identifying robbers or hackers. But practice showed this wasn't true, Binh added.
SBV has responded to the robberies by instructing banks to speed up their connection to the point-of-sale (POS) network at retail goods and services stores nationwide. This would reduce cash payments and lessen the associated risks.
Fifteen commercial banks and three card service corporations announced last Thursday that they would connect to the POS system in HCM City to make it easier for cardholders to pay without cash and reduce overload at ATMs.
The connection will be deployed at 131 merchant points in HCMC including supermarkets, commercial centres, fashion shops and telecommunications services and equipment shops.
However, the Head of the SBV's Payment Department Bui Quang Tien said the infrastructure for card payments remained limited to big cities and urban areas. Banks had yet to diversify their payment services.
He added that most people still paid in cash which meant they still used ATM to withdraw their money. — VNS
