Reliable Bank Operations Monitoring - A New Banking Perspective

As part of Stadtsparkasse's modernization, an innovative camera surveillance concept has been introduced

Partnership and obligation

Mutual trust, a customer-friendly approach and close ties to the public administration are the columns on which the success of the Kaiserslautern municipal savings bank (Stadtsparkasse) is based. Customer-friendliness in this context not only means competent and face-to-face consulting services, but also omnipresence: 20 branch offices and six self-service terminals all over town guarantee fast service virtually around the corner for every one of the more than 100,000 Kaiserslautern inhabitants. Responsible for this success are the 270 employees of the savings bank who have generated a balance sheet total of approximately 850 million EUR in 2002. With its regional roots, the municipal savings bank considers itself to be more than just another bank. Participation in local activities is very important as the bank feels close to the Kaiserslautern residents, its businesses and the city's economy. The municipal savings bank supports activities in the fields of economic and structural development as well as public welfare. It also supports charity organizations, sports and cultural events, and many youth and science activities.

Customer-oriented in all aspects

Customer-friendliness has many forms for the Kaiserslautern municipal savings bank: customized solutions for the requirements of individual companies, attractive products for private customers, and a range of competent consulting and service activities are offered in a modern environment. For example, the bank's principal office has been modernized and redesigned from top to bottom in order to create an attractive and even more secure environment for clients to manage their financial affairs. As part of this modernization an innovative camera surveillance concept has been introduced.

Convincing concept

MOBOTIX cameras do not need additional software and can be managed conveniently via an Internet browser

Werner Stumpf, CEO of the Kaiserslautern municipal savings bank says, "when we first started planning theremodelling of our principal office in 2001, we also thought about integrating a better surveillance solution."  The insurance company only requested that the cash desks be monitored by cameras."We did not consider this to be sufficient," Werner Stumpf says."In case of a raid, we wanted the best possible documentation of the surrounding and the entrance areas. Also, we wanted additional cameras to improve building protection and to provide surveillance of our IT and technical engineering centres as well as the client vaults," Mr. Stumpf adds. The surveillance cameras previously used were not capable of meeting these objectives. They were solely designed to monitor the cashier area during a raid and were rather complicated in handling and maintenance. "And then, our mayor and chairman of the board of directors, Bernhard Deubig, brought a new product by a Kaiserslautern company to our attention," Werner Stumpf remembers. "We got in touch with MOBOTIX and enjoyed the presentation of their network camera. I myself was immediately convinced by this solution's potential. Our director of operations felt the same way. And the low cost definitely was a big plus for MOBOTIX."

Officially certified

However, until then, the device had not been officially certified for banking environments. Thus, MOBOTIX developed a new version for the cashier area - the banking camera. This camera version is equipped with two alarm storages and one suspicion storage. This setup enables the cashier to trigger a special alert when a raid or a suspicious situation occurs. Due to an integrated ring buffer, temporary images are stored non-stop. When an alarm is triggered, the images of 15 minutes before and after the alarm are stored permanently so that the official requirements are met.  These sequences can then be evaluated directly.

Easy handling

MOBOTIX cameras do not need additional software and can be managed conveniently via an Internet browser. "All we need is a customized configuration for administering the individual banking and surveillance cameras," adds the director of operations, Michael Valk.  This sums up one of MOBOTIX' basic concepts: the company concentrates on actively developing their excellent stand-alone solutions that are designed to allow the user configure the camera in a simple and efficient manner.

Customized solution

In close cooperation with MOBOTIX, IT specialist Thomas Koob of the municipal savings bank developed a customized concept. For example, for every branch office, he set up an additional server for the banking cameras in order to guarantee permanent availability. For security purposes, these cameras operate in a physically separated subnet to avoid negative effects should, in case of an alarm, the entire bank network be overloaded. The camera uses the TCP/IP protocol and, thus, is able to access the bank network through a multi-tier firewall system via gateways.  This allows for centralized administration, live image control, maintenance and permanent availability and status checks of the surveillance system with automatic timely notification in case of a system malfunction.

Extraordinary recordings

"For us, the advantages of the new system are obvious," says CEO Werner Stumpf. "In case of a raid, the camera not only records the event itself but also everything else happening in the surrounding areas. Compared to the former solution, the MOBOTIX cameras deliver more images at higher quality, and the images can be evaluated much faster. We are also very satisfied with the camera's performance in monitoring the building, the IT and technical engineering centres as well as the vaults." Recently, the new solution proved very helpful in an ATM incident.  In this case of credit card fraud, the cameras recorded images of the perpetrator that were immediately available.  Thomas Koop recalls the police's positive reaction. "The officers were astonished by the high quality of the photos that could immediately be used for the search," he says.