ATM activity – will customers suffer from expensive security changes?
On September 15th, 2021 Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs adopted changes to the regulation introducing security measures for providers of ATM and cash transportation services. The changes concerning ATM activity seem to be quite expensive and complicated to implement – the Ministry expects that ATM services providers will significantly upgrade security measures applied in at least 40% of ATMs.
The upgrade involves introducing a system of neutralization of paper cash values (a system used for automatic and irreversible damage to paper cash values, while retaining the possibility of their identification, in the event of an attempt to open a specialized container or an ATM cassette in an ATM or when an unauthorized individual attempts to remove it from an ATM).
According to the Ministry, the changes are aimed at reducing ATM thefts, which are quite numerous in Poland (more than 100 instances each year) and shall be applicable from September 24th, 2023.
According to the ATM services providers, upgrading 40% of cash machines will consume around 250 million Polish złotys and may cause:
- removing cash machines from less profitable locations (especially in smaller cities),
- increasing the price of ATM services, which will be partly financed by the end customers.
DKP Legal
