The trend is clear. In Denmark, there was not a single bank robbery last year. The country is also miles ahead in the prevention of ATM robberies.
In Denmark, bank robberies are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. The reason is not that criminals suddenly developed a stricter moral compass or increased security at bank branches. The Scandinavian country operates almost exclusively on a cashless basis, leaving there hardly any branches left to steal cash. What is a criminal to do?
After just one bank branch robbery in 2021, Denmark scored a shutout in 2022. Last year, not a single bank employee was forced to hand over money under threat of violence, according to data from the banking association «Finance Denmark», and reported by «Bloomberg» (behind paywall). Twenty years ago, there had been 222 bank robberies in Denmark.
Going Cashless
Criminals hardly have a choice. According to the association, currently, only around 20 bank branches hold any cash at all. This is due to cost savings and Danes increasingly using cards and payment apps on their smartphones for their transactions. According to central bank data, cash withdrawals have fallen by around three-quarters over the past six years.
As in Switzerland and other EU countries, criminal gangs in Denmark have turned to blowing up ATMs. In 2016, 18 such robberies were recorded in Denmark. But here, too, thanks to better surveillance and technical protection, these attacks have dropped to zero, he said.
Switzerland and Germany Lag
Other countries are not as far along, either in terms of bank robberies or ATM blasts. In Switzerland, there were still 36 bank robberies in 2019, according to statistics. In Switzerland and Germany, explosives are the preferred method of criminals to separate cash from ATMs.
According to media reports, at least 40 ATMs have been blown up or broken into in Switzerland recently, with those in rural areas, particularly at risk.
Many banks are responding by thinning out their ATM network. In most cases, they are keeping quiet about the security measures they have introduced. The Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB) and the Baloise Bank are taking a different tack, with deterrence as the motto.
The measures are also communicated to the public. The deputy head of integral security at BLKB, Colin Genhart, recently presented the marker dyes used in vending machines. The particles they contain can be individually assigned to each vending machine and cover the immediate area in the event of an explosion. They are invisible to the naked eye and adhere to money, clothing, or even the skin, and can last up to a year, he added.
Baloise Bank uses ink or glue cartridges, security officer Daniel Graf explains. The glue spreads within a fraction of a second. After that, the money is just a block that you can no longer take apart, and every note is destroyed if you try to. With the ink cartridge, each note is heavily inked, becoming usable.
The Aargauer Kantonalbank also relies on ink pouches, and some Raiffeisen ATMs have stickers warning of this security feature, according to the «Aargauer Zeitung.»
Record in Germany
In Germany, at a conference of interior ministers in the fall, Lower Saxony's Boris Pistorius spoke of more than 500 ATMs being blown up in 2022, calling it a «singular record," in Munich's «Merkur» newspaper.
The Netherlands reduced the number significantly because the money is rendered unusable when it is blown up. It is either dyed or glued. «Nobody steals money that can no longer be used,» says the politician.
Swiss Cash Lovers
In contrast to Denmark and some other countries, Switzerland is still a country in love with using cash. In November, the vice-chairman of the Swiss National Bank Martin Schlegel went so far as to lay out a case for the continued use of cash in a speech, as finews.com reported.
He acknowledged that digitalization has changed payment habits and put pressure on hard cash. Nevertheless, «it is important that cash continues to be widely accepted and easily accessible.»
Just not to bank robbers.
