Article by Mr. Pulkit Punj, Director, AnG India Ltd.
In our society, banks are symbolic to top brass, in terms of security. Their image of infallibility in safety, instils faith in people to deposit their valuables and hard earned savings.Especially for a developing nation such as India, where people from various economic strata, come together to entrust their financial bequest on these institutions, banks are often seen as the unshaken signifier of prosperity. Unfortunately, surveillance in Indian banks were limited to solely past, which lead to robberies and discrepancies, often plaguing the financial ecosystem. These, in turn, shook the faith of common people on the banking industry, resulting to an influx of unaccounted money hoarding at homes.The rise of urbanization and rapid expansion of branches in Tier i and ii cities have increased the criminal occurrences in banks, due to the inability to provide strong security solutions to such small cities and villages. Terrorism and other law and order related issues, has made it difficult for the police to dedicate more attention to the security of banks, with just a set of guards allotted to the banks and ATMs. There is a huge gap in terms of sophisticated security equipment, hosted in a bank, with most of the banks resorting to cheap and outdated systems to save expenditure on security. Plus, more emphasis is given to make banking comprehensive to customer, overshadowing the need to progress in terms of security.For these factors, hundreds of earnings are lost every year in bank frauds and robberies, some of them occurring on the directive of an insider’s knowledge.
CMS, in terms of security, refers to a secure location where alarm signals are monitored by live central station operators 24/7. The term can also be used in reference to services utilized to monitor burglar, fire and medical There is a dire need for automation in security to replace reactivity with pro-activity. The Indian Government’s move to include Central Monitoring System (CMS) in its functionary bodies, are turning out to be a beacon of hope for the flagging security system in banks alarm systems. In addition to this, central monitoring system provides watchmen and supervisory services as well as runner service for fire alarms. Central monitoring systems enlists the use of special telephone lines, computers, receivers and trained staff to keep a track of their customer's security systems and act appropriately, alongside the authoritarian bodies, in case of criminal occurrences. CMS combines the positive pointers of a monitored system with wireless system, to provide comprehensive solution that caters to the requirements.
CMS, in tandem with optimized surveillance system, aids banks in the following ways-