Banks mum over proposed limits in ATM transactions

Banks in the city are withholding any say on the proposed ordinance to limit the number of transactions in Automated Teller Machines here until the proposal is ironed out to the edge.

Both Carlos Apuhin of the Bank of the Philippine Islands and Zosimo Lim, president of the Cebu Bankers Club, had said the proposal of councilor Christopher Alix should detail how the legislation should be implemented. 

One issue raised by BPI is on the implementation of the ordinance considering that it is reportedly difficult to monitor the transactions being done in ATMs, especially those located outside the banks or the so-called off-site ATMs.

Apuhin said it is also difficult to designate the guards for monitoring because guards are supposed to look after the safety and security of the entire bank, not just the ATMs. Aside from this, no security guards are stationed in off-site ATMs.

Apuhin admitted that there are those who conduct several transactions with several cards in one ATM, especially during payday when employees of a company or the company itself just designate a representative to withdraw the salary.

Transactions like this, Apuhin said, would usually result to long queues.

In proposing for the ordinance, Alix said conducting several transactions is unfair to the other clients of the bank because they have to wait for a long time for one client to finish. This reportedly defeats the purpose of having ATMs to make transactions faster, he said.

But Alix said he will consider the sentiments raised by the banks to improve the proposed ordinance.

Early on, banks had expressed support to another ordinance that aims to require banks, ATM stations, and other similar establishments to have security devices installed in these firms’ premises.

The bankers group, however, asked the Council to fine-tune the proposed legislation, including the length of time within which the banks can comply with the requirements of the ordinance once it takes effect.

Lim had said that the banks can fully and effectively comply with the requirements if they would be given at least six months to one year compliance period. In the ordinance, banks are required to install security devices only within three months once the legislation is approved.

Lim explained that three months would not be enough for the banks to install the additional security devices in all its branches, especially in ATM stations outside Cebu City. 

And while CBC feared that feeding the police videos of their operations would be very risky, councilor Sylvan Jakosalem, the proponent of the ordinance, yesterday clarified that the ordinance would only require the banks to feed to the police a video of the robbery should it happens and not necessarily the video of the bank’s day-to-day operations.

CBC also proposed that the imprisonment clause on the non-compliance of the ordinance be changed into revocation of business permit. After all, Lim said, the bank could no longer operate and would be closed once the business permit is revoked.

CBC further supports the proposal owing to reports of bogus security guards that allegedly assisted customers while withdrawing money from ATM stations in the malls. The bogus guards would allegedly position themselves behind the customer so they could take a peek while the ATM card’s Personal Identification Number is being typed. Later, they would allegedly make moves to distract the customer so they could switch the ATM card with a bogus one. — Joeberth M. Ocao/MEEV