There were zero bank robberies in Denmark last year, but thieves are still keeping busy | CBC Radio

When it involves crime, money is not king — not less than in Denmark.

For the primary time ever, the nation recorded zero financial institution robberies in 2022, in keeping with Finance Denmark, the trade affiliation that represents the nation’s banks.

In truth, financial institution robberies have been ticking downward for greater than a decade. In 2021, there was only one.

That’s a dramatic shift from 20 years in the past when Denmark noticed about 220 financial institution robberies a yr, says Michael Busk-Jepsen, Finance Denmark’s director of digitization.

“It was very nice to see this statistic, especially because of the people working in the banks, and that they’re not being exposed to that anymore,” Busk-Jepsen instructed As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

Busk-Jepsen credit beefed-up safety measures and a transfer towards cashless transitions. But regardless of the welcome change, he warns that criminals within the digital period are discovering new methods to choose folks’s pockets.

Traumatized financial institution tellers, lethal holdups

Busk-Jepsen says that a number of many years in the past, financial institution robberies have been nearly a each day prevalence in Denmark. 

The penalties for financial institution workers, prospects and cops have been at greatest traumatic — and at worst lethal.

That’s why the Danish financial institution workers’ union on Tuesday welcomed the most recent news.

“It is just amazing,” spokesman Steen Lund Olsen stated in an announcement, noting that robberies “put an absolutely extreme strain on the affected employees.”

Busk-Jepsen says these crimes have been frequent for 2 causes. One, it was straightforward. And two, it was fruitful. 

“The business case was, so to speak, too good for the robbers. It was too easy to get away with the money from the banks,” he stated. “That was not a healthy place to be at, so we decided to do something about it.”

The very first thing monetary establishments did was beef up safety, he stated. Between 2000 and 2010, Busk-Jepsen says Danish banks targeted on enhancing their surveillance measures, alarm techniques and relationships with police.

That helped, Busk-Jepsen stated. But the factor that actually made a distinction was the transfer away from money.

Starting in 2005, he says, fee by playing cards started superseding fee by money in Denmark. That pattern has solely continued. 

Today, Busk-Jepsen says many banks do not even have money on the premises.

Finance Denmark says about 20 financial institution branches throughout the nation at the moment have money holdings. The variety of financial institution branches has additionally fallen from 219 in 1991 to 56 in 2021, it stated.

If there is no paper, Busk-Jepsen says, there’s not a lot level in a caper.

Initially, robbers switched their consideration from financial institution branches to automated banking machines, with such assaults peaking at 18 in 2016.

But these, too, have come right down to zero amid higher surveillance and technical safety, the trade affiliation stated.

Digital crime on the rise

But simply because your cash’s not saved in a secure, doesn’t suggest it is secure. As banking turns into an more and more on-line exercise, so does crime. 

“Of course, [thieves] went digital like everybody else,” Busk-Jepsen stated. “Internet banking was introduced, and the numbers of different sorts of digital frauds are just growing at the moment.”

That can imply cyberattacks towards banks, Busk-Jepsen says. But most frequently, digital fraudsters are likely to go proper to the supply and goal prospects immediately. 

Anyone can fall sufferer to a grift on-line, he stated, however the aged are a very susceptible goal. 

To push again, he says banks are investing closely in public consciousness campaigns instructing prospects the best way to be careful for scammers.

“In the older days, the criminals went for the physical bank, whereas today the criminals, they go for the digital customer,” Busk-Jepsen stated.

With recordsdata from The Associated Press. Interview with Michael Busk-Jepsen produced by Chris Trowbridge.