Lithuanian Banks Set Out to Install the ATM Ink Protection

After the Bank of Lithuania decided to change the unfit and damaged currency replacement procedures, the commercial banks’ interest in the protective measures which, should the robbery occur, will dye the ATM cash with special ink, significantly increased.

Up to now, the rules provided any natural or legal person with the opportunity to replace the damaged currency with a new one. As a result, the installation of such protective measures would not pay back completely as after investing in the ink protection the currency damaged during the robbery would not loose its value and could be easily replaced with undamaged currency.

After changing the rules, the damaged currency will be accepted and recouped only to the banks and institutions that apply the mentioned protective measures. This should ensure that the marked currency stolen by robbers will cause more suspicion and it will be impossible to freely use it for circulation. A similar order is valid in Norway, Denmark and other Western European countries.

“The banks’ interest in this ATM protective measure has increased thrice. It is most likely because of the increase in the amount of ATM robberies, decision of the Bank of Lithuania, and the opportunity to recover the damaged currency,” says Saulius Kancerevyčius, Sales Manager of BS/2. According to him, installation of a special device consisting of the ink capsule, sensors detecting the possible robbery, and corresponding program solution, taking into consideration the device modification, costs from several hundred to over a thousand Euro per ATM. The installation of such protection in one ATM takes no longer than two hours.

“Although the ”ink“ ATM protection measure is relatively expensive, it is exceptionally effective. In the countries where it was started to use the ATM robbery rate decreased to minimum. Therefore, in order to protect their assets, avoid ATM ”idle time“ and, most importantly, preserve the good name, banks are hurrying to install it,” says S. Kancerevyčius.

According to the European ATM Security Team (EAST), 1 459 ATMs were robbed throughout Europe during the first half of the last year, which makes 4.46 crime per thousand devices per annum.

According to the data of the Police Department, 26 ATMs were robbed in Lithuania in the course of the last year (from November, 2007 to November, 2008), which makes 17.6 crimes per thousand devices (all in all there are 1471 ATMs in Lithuania). Therefore, the rate of similar crimes in our country is four times higher than the European average.