Security Products

By Jeff Brummett · April 2006

Financial institutions look to modern technology to help track thieves

FOR those who grew up during the early seventies, the first recollection people have of seeing video surveillance in use was probably on their local evening news. Typically several still frame camera images would appear sequentially over a short period of time. This time-lapse recording didn't produce clear pictures. Pictures were black and white, and usually not well-focused.

Back in those days, banks (and perhaps casinos) were about the only places using video surveillance systems. These were about the only two industries where video surveillance was commonly affordable.

If you were a contestant on the popular game show, "The Family Feud," and Richard Dawson asked the question, "Name an industry that uses video surveillance," surely, banks would have been one of the top two answers.

Using Modern Technology to Catch a Crook
Today, someone would probably answer that question the same way. However, if the question were asked a different way, "Name an industry that uses the most state-of-the-art video surveillance," they'd be wrong to answer banks. As an industry that uses the most-state-of-the-art video surveillance, financial institutions, by and large, are still playing catch-up.

The fact of the matter is, as an industry, the surveillance technology used by most banks today lags far behind the technology that can readily be found in many local convenience stores. However, a division of Fidelity Financial Services called Fidelity Integrated Financial Solutions may just redefine how banks view and use video surveillance technology for decades to come.

Fidelity Integrated Financial Solutions has developed TellerPlus^TM. This proprietary bank teller software serves the banking industry in much the same way that a point-of-sale cash register system serves the retail industry. It provides management tools for all transactions and account activity that happens between a bank and its customers. Needless to say, bank teller software is a critical part of every local branch's day-to-day operations. It also has been a critical tool used in law enforcement.

Aiding Law Enforcement
In recent years, post 9/11 federal security laws have begun to place pressure on banking institutions to improve their ability to provide quick and detailed information on suspicious account transactions. Counter-terrorism organizations within the government are increasingly asking for help from financial institutions to provide financial transaction records of known terrorist agents, including their associates, friends, contacts, and even businesses and charities they frequent. Being able to provide such information under the Patriot Act is absolutely critical. The degree and speed to which a financial institution is able to provide such information is a matter of technology. Linking suspicious account transaction histories to the actual video of the persons involved in those transactions has obvious benefits.

In October 2005, representatives from Fidelity Integrated Financial Solutions responsible for the development of the bank teller software began contacting several digital video surveillance manufactures in an attempt to find a company willing to create a joint venture software application. The effort, once completed, would produce a new product capable of linking a digital video clip with the software.

"Finding a company who was even willing to talk to us about the possibility was more difficult than we anticipated," said Steve York, TellerPlus development manager with Fidelity. "Finally, American Sentry Guard seemed to have both the interest and required technical staff necessary to accomplish what we wanted to do."

The software team wanted a way to create video records integrated with electronic data records of all bank teller transactions and tied to together with a single seamless tool. Having the ability to retrieve real-time video of a particular individual as he or she enters the bank and tying that person's video to an actual transaction while inside the bank, is something law enforcement agencies have always been interested in. After 9/11, it has become even more important.

"With the current surveillance systems and bank teller systems out there today, that process is incredibly labor intensive to say the least. Finding the account transaction in our bank teller software is easy," said Kyle Templine, director of windows and platform development for Fidelity. "Getting the corresponding video to go along with that transaction is a different story. You're talking about having to sort through hours and hours of video. It just wasn't an easy thing for most banks to do. We thought that there had to be a better way to do this. That's how this whole thing got started."

Getting Things Started
The joint effort took about three months to produce a working module. Fidelity is testing the model at a test branch facility in Florida.

"So far, the response has been very positive. The longer we have this product in its real-world environment, the more practical applications we are beginning to come up with," Templine said.

And why not? The idea of integrating customer transaction history with video has been a staple of the digital video surveillance revolution among retailers for some time. The ability to see how sales associates interact with customers has yielded major dividends to training departments of corporate retail companies all over the country.

With banking institutions, does anyone really think the dividends could be any less? Consider the value of being able to sort customer transactions coupled with live video and audio of the event.

Suppose a customer believes a mistake was made by the teller in counting the amount of money involved in a withdrawal or deposit. A complaint is received. How does the bank respond? Live video of the transaction allows a response to be quite simple. Pull up the transaction and watch the original transaction as it occurs. Cameras don't lie. Customers and employees sometimes make mistakes.

Consider the value to any bank of losing one account where the average deposit is several thousand dollars. Those are the type of accounts banks can't afford to loose.

How are those people being treated when they come into the branch? How does anyone really know how a specific customer is being treated? What happens when the boss is not there?

Keeping an Eye on it All
People do more good and less bad when they think someone is watching. Knowing the boss has the ability to pull up virtually any type of transaction an employee has been involved in, see and hear exactly how they performed their duties, might keep one or two employees on their best behavior, even when the boss isn't there. Large accounts are lost everyday in the banking industry strictly due to the way a particular customer is treated or not treated.

Banks, like all businesses, operate in a very competitive market. They all give out the same dollar when customers come to withdraw their money. There are no proprietary or patented products a bank offers its customer. How people are treated while in the bank makes a huge difference in an industry where every billboard, radio or television campaign tries to promote the idea that "at our bank, the customer is not just a number."

With video surveillance integrated fully into bank teller software, banks have a powerful tool that can help them do what they do better.

"Not only are there enormous training and customer service benefits, but it also can assist banks in streamlining their back end management process," Templine said.

A large part of the banking industries costs are the people on the back end that get paid to watch, audit and verify that the people on the front end (bank tellers) are doing their job correctly, honestly and mistake-free. These are people that the average customer never sees. But they are there.

Templine believes this new teller/DVR product has the potential to dramatically streamline a bank's efficiency in areas such as these.

"We showed a quick demo of this product to a group of about 200 managers at a recent meeting. It was actually a very small, sort of ancillary part of the meeting," Templine said. "Nearly everyone wanted more information, had questions or wanted to know when this product might be available."

With the early level of interest demonstrated by Fidelity, the term "banking on video" may take on a whole new meaning for financial institutions in the coming years. The banking industry, like so many other industries, is discovering a new reality: Adding digital video surveillance as a management tool -- along with its more conventional use as a security and asset protection tool -- can push a business's revenue and profits to a whole new level. It's kind of like money in the bank.

About the author

Jeff Brummett
Jeff Brummett is the president and COO of American Sentry Guard.