Ensuring the safety, security and efficiency of financial institutions is of utmost importance in today’s world. One key element in achieving this is leveraging an open video management system (VMS) that allows for seamless integration with the latest technologies such as access control, analytics, and transaction tracking. Let’s explore how an open VMS can play a significant role in bolstering financial security.
Mixed Camera Brands & Placement: A Strategic Move to Detect Threats
When it comes to securing financial establishments, camera capabilities and camera placement is paramount. An open VMS provides the flexibility to connect cameras from a variety of different manufacturers, enabling seamless surveillance and monitoring of critical areas. By strategically positioning cameras both inside the building and out, the risk of theft can be minimized. Traditional exterior cameras, known for their high-quality footage, can capture incidents, and using analytics can help detect weapons. Video can be exported and turned over to law enforcement to facilitate prosecution in legal proceedings and can be shared with other branches or financial institutions to identify potential organized crime activity.
Comprehensive Security Features: Stay One Step Ahead
An open VMS offers a range of comprehensive security and operational features that empower financial institutions to safeguard their assets, minimize threats and ultimately protect their brand. Features like Alarm View allow for a Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) to give a real time overview of security events and enable situational awareness across all facilities and branches. These events can vary from ATM (Automated Teller Machines) vestibule loitering to real time observation of bank robberies to provide a timely response and give first responders insight of risk to employees and customers during the event. Video verification can also be an excellent addition to the bank’s security operations mitigating false alarms and ensuring alerts are verified as genuine security concerns. Camera health can be monitored to ensure all video is being recorded and maintained for the required duration of time to meet stringent compliance standards.
License plate recognition (LPR) has become popular as this feature can be used to alert security personnel when potential issues arise. For example, by proactively entering license plate numbers in the VMS software of disgruntled former employees or others not permitted on the premises, an alert signals security personnel to act when LPR is triggered. The ability to identify issues and respond appropriately goes a long way to ensuring the security of customers, personnel, and facilities.
ATM Integration: Strengthening Transaction Analysis and Investigation
Modern-day ATM integration goes beyond simple transaction processing. By associating transaction attributes, such as transaction ID, dollar amount, date, and time with video footage, financial institutions can review and analyze critical information. This integration enhances investigation efficiency and reduces potential losses or identify threats to customers using ATMs.
Protecting Against Cash Theft: A Closer Look at Cash Handling
Monitoring cash handling by bank tellers is another area where an open VMS proves invaluable. Detailed footage of customer interactions, which can even read bill amounts, significantly minimizes the risk of cash theft. By closely monitoring and documenting these activities via video, financial institutions can reduce teller theft and even detect teller errors.
Efficient Follow-up Investigations: Collaboration is Key
Efficient follow-up investigations and collaboration among stakeholders are paramount to financial institution security. The ability to share video footage from any location via the cloud accelerates investigations and strengthens legal cases against those involved in fraudulent activities. The granular site and device filtering options further enhance monitoring capabilities, enabling customized security protocols for each location.
Creating Efficiencies: The Customer Experience is where it’s at
Video surveillance is a tool that can be leveraged to monitor the flow of customers throughout their banking experience. Whether that is monitoring drive through lane movement, or customer queues inside the building, these insights can present opportunities for change that inform staffing schedule decisions, improvements to lobby layouts or other decisions based on human behavior patterns. Making improvements based on video evidence can guarantee a better customer experience overall and in today’s competitive world, retaining customers is critical to success.
Incorporating an open VMS into the security strategy of financial institutions proves to be a game-changer. Leveraging a variety of technologies that integrate with an open VMS enhances the ability for financial institutions to secure their customers, employees, and assets.
Chris Meiter
Chris Meiter has been President of Salient Systems since 2009. Prior to joining Salient, Meiter was Director of Business Development for Honeywell Video where he was responsible for Honeywell’s Key Vertical Markets, international sales management in Europe, Asia and South Africa, and developed Honeywell’s Digital Video sales program.