SBI to go for rodent control in ATMs

NORTHEAST | June 20, 2018 (TNN):

India's largest banker, State Bank of India (SBI), is trying to find ways for effective rodent control in ATMs after notes worth Rs 12,38,000 were found to have been destroyed by mice in an ATM in Tinsukia district of Assam on Monday.

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Chief general manager of Northeastern circle of SBI, Sunil Kumar Tandon on Tuesday said, "We will think in terms of pest control and ways to deal with such kind of rodent menace."

He added, "We will even sensitise the third party vendors managing the ATMs on this issue. The ATM where this incident took place is operated by third party vendor and we pay the vendor on transaction basis.

According to a bank official, a Guwahati-based financial company, which is the third party vendor, had reportedly deposited Rs 29 lakhs inside ATM at Laipuli on May 19. The ATM, however, stopped working from next day. "On June 11 the bank asked the technician to fix the problem for the ATM was not working. It was found the notes, mostly of Rs 2000 and Rs 500 denomination were shredded by the rats." Notes worth Rs 17 lakh were found intact and salvaged.

The official said that bank has ordered an internal inquiry. "Notes are kept in sealed cabinet. However it is likely that one or other part might have remained open which allowed the rats to get in and destroy the notes."

Questions are now being asked why it took such a long time, from May 20 to June 11, for the bank to fix the problem at the ATM. "Whenever an ATM fails, a signal is sent to hub or switch and maintenance is dispatched immediately so that the down time, the period for which an ATM remains non-operational, is minimum. Here the downtime is almost a month. The signal sent to switch or hub must have been ignored. Had the maintenance been done immediately, the damage would have been far less," an official said.