EDITORIAL - General banking sector needs more protection

Three women were arrested recently on suspicion of being involved in cash skimming activities at ATM booths in various areas in Metro Cebu. Given the rash of such activities the past few weeks, one of whose most notable victims had been a sitting Cebu City councilor, the apprehension of this women has given many some a sense of security. But nothing can be more wrong than to give in to the temptation to applaud the arrests.

The arrests do not constitute a victory for law enforcement or justice for the victims. They are in fact an indication of something that is not only very wrong but more terrifying. Just consider the three women arrested. They are virtually simple folk, ordinary persons who probably do not have much education or technical expertise.

They could very well be just next-door neighbors who just stumbled upon some ingenious ways to make a fast buck. One shudders to think if just enough of such kind of people would suddenly decide to do what the three women did. Why, this country could face a banking crisis of sorts. If simple, ordinary women can find a way to beat the system, imagine what truly sophisticated operators can do.

The arrests are a scary reminder that there will always be people out there who are incessantly in search of ways, from crude methods such as those employed by the three arrested women to the highly sophisticated schemes such as the one unleashed not very long ago against the national bank of an Asian country, to tap into rich resources like banks.

And what makes everything even more scary is the fact that there seems to be no indication that banks are doing everything they can to safeguard vulnerable transactions like those done through ATMs other than by means of equally vulnerable human intervention such as the posting of guards or by CCTV or built-in cameras that are not very effective and reliable either.

If hackers can break into a secure national bank of another country and steal hundreds of millions of dollars and transfer the money in an instant into another bank in another country, consider how vulnerable an ATM machine is that caters to the public, sometimes in unguarded isolated locations. Clearly there is a need to step up safeguards that are not dependent on the size or volume of assets at stake.

In fact, there is a need to take care of the smaller bank clientele because it is these people who, by their sheer numbers, can cause real problems to the entire banking system when spooked enough over the safety of their money. Giant depositors can always transfer their assets to safety electronically without the public getting wind of it. But it is the general public that, when jittery over a few pesos, can actually bring down banks.