Demonetisation: Security doubled at ATMs as crimes increase after note ban

MUMBAI: Cash logistics companies have doubled their systemic checks and physical currency audits to make sure there's no cash pilferage through its network of ATM replenishing agents.

“500 security auditors working across the country are conducting random checks at ATMs verifying the series of notes that are being loaded to create adequate deterrence so that there's no wrongdoing,“ said Rituraj Sinha, president of the Cash Logistics Association of India, which is the representative body of the companies which transport cash in the country .

At a time when various bank officials and even a Reserve Bank of India official have been arrested for money laundering and facilitating illegal deposits of cash or helping in suspicious transactions, the entire banking sector has become alert to the possibilities of such unwanted pilferages afflicting the system.

“The entire cash logistics sector is managed by private entities and is beyond the regulatory purview, hence we have to be extremely careful about the processes of handling of cash in this sector,“ said a senior banker on the condition of anonymity.

Fearing that nothing could be ruled out in such extraordinary times, companies which manage the ATM networks said that sprucing up of security around the cash loading system has started from November 12.