Johannesburg - The SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) on Friday said it would work with banks, cash-in-transit companies and the police to bring down crime in the banking sector.
“It is only through such collaboration that we will ensure that the fight against organised crime is dealt with,” Sabric said in a statement.
“We believe that fighting crime is a collective responsibility and not only that of law enforcement.”
Sabric welcomed the decrease of 0.4 percent in serious crime after the release of the 2013/2014 crime statistics.
Sabric chief executive Kalyani Pillay welcomed the statistics on behalf of the banking and cash-in-transit (CIT) industries.
“We continue to review all working structures to appropriately address the threats posed by organised criminals,” Pillay said in a statement.
“We would also like to thank the police for continuously striving to collaborate with the banking and CIT industries to ensure that the criminals are brought to book, and we look forward to more arrests and successful prosecutions.”
Sabric's crime statistics indicated an increase in bank robberies, bank burglaries and CIT robberies in the 2013/14
financial year.
Pillay said the good news was an 11 percent decrease in ATM attacks.
“This decrease indicates a positive impact on the fight against ATM attacks. This decrease in ATM attacks is consistent with the previous year's 17 percent decrease,” Sabric said.
Releasing the crime statistics in Pretoria, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said the largest increase was in bank robberies, which saw a 200 percent hike.
“Bank robbery went from seven to 21, with Gauteng contributing most of them,” Phiyega said.
She said bank robberies were mostly organised and associated with syndicates, which needed intelligence-led policing.
Cash-in-transit robberies stabilised and common robbery increased by 0.6 percent. - Sapa