Banking and Financial Institutions

Common Risks Within the Financial Sector

Digital Banking Movement

The digital movement has increasingly sped up due to the pandemic in 2020-2021, and the national/international lockdowns which prevented customers being able to physically visit commercial banking stores. Although, the younger generations have been found to make up the largest percentage of mobile banking users at 47% (prior to the pandemic), older generations have been found to still value human interaction and prefer to visit in stores. Because of this, banking and financial institutions have been presented with a unique challenge: how to make both types of customers happy.

The solution has been a hybrid banking model that integrates both traditional banking and the new digitalised experience. Banks have been overhauling their physical stores with self-service machines, and cutting staff numbers to a minimum.

This shift has therefore created a few new challenges when it comes to the banks’ security requirements.

Health and Safety

Many retail banks have traditionally invested heavily in a security infrastructure that focuses on their employees’ welfare and asset management. But in many branches, the location of security cameras and alarm setting procedures haven’t been updated for years, perhaps even decades. Changing the use of the space in-store to host self-service machines and staff working the shop floor, rather than behind glass screens, means that surveillance and alarm systems must also evolve to meet the new criteria.

As banks move towards these brighter, modern, more dynamic spaces, they also create challenges for the security team. Now that the shop floors are more of an open space, with security and staff being able to help and interact with customers directly, they need protection from an unexpected