A Comprehensive Guide to Night Inspections for Financial Institutions

Night inspections are an important component of financial services, not only for security but also for compliance and marketing. Consider the fact that half the time customers drive past the institution is at twilight or night, so failure to have a night inspection program can damage the bottom line. Income to the institution can be reduced by legal claims, loss of ATM fee income, customers who are afraid to use the premises or poorly displayed advertising programs.

We have performed hundreds of night inspections and in the process have discovered many unusual problems. We have found trashcans in front of drive-up ATMs, leaflets left by disgruntled customers, doors and windows left open by janitors, and front doors completely removed.

The world looks different at night, especially around a financial institution. With this in mind, we conduct our reviews by asking ourselves four simple questions:

1. Would we feel comfortable having a loved one use this location?
2. How would a thief rob this institution?
3. What marketing problems can we observe?
4. What compliance problems are there with the ATM installation?

Many municipalities and states now have minimum lighting standards for ATMs, and some institutions rely on streetlights or other adjoining lighting to pass these night inspection standards. Often these institutions don’t even realize they have a problem until they are fined for failed inspections. They are amazed when streetlights burn out and the local governing body doesn’t repair them before some arbitrary date, or when the adjoining business turns off its lights at 1:00 a.m. to save money. Consequently, you should always be sure your lights pass state inspection requirements rather than relying on neighbors’ illumination to assist you.

Another problem we have observed concerns shrubbery and plants. Trees or bushes that can hide a person (standing or lying down) should never be planted. Recently a robber used the morning glory technique of hiding behind a tree planted by the entry door. He then took the first employee arriving hostage and forced entry to the branch.
Marketing and compliance departments should be very interested in the night inspection program since marketing spends money on advertising, tickets, giveaways, promotions, and weekends at local trade shows. However, the reality is many marketing departments do not consider the need for night inspection programs. Gain further understanding of conducting night inspections and other compliance and risk assessments with Barry Thompson's webinar, Conducting a Physical Security Review & Risk Assessment.

Barry Thompson is an international speaker, trainer, consultant, and writer. He is a security and compliance “guru” for a leading national training organization and regularly presents security conferences for trade groups – he has trained over 54,000 financial professionals.

Barry is recognized worldwide, presenting in Brussels, Belgium to European bankers on internal fraud; at the United Nations on identity theft; and to Japanese bankers on bank security. Barry has worked in the financial services industry for over four decades and has held the positions of security officer, compliance officer, treasurer, senior vice president, and executive vice president. He has handled over 900 security cases and has been involved with investigations and prosecutions at the federal, state, and local levels.