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Safe-guarding cash as it flows through the economy

The security industry’s role in the handling and securing of cash at various stages of the economic cycle spreads far wider than one imagines. From the time cash is withdrawn from an ATM and then used to pay for goods, to the banking of that cash by the retailer, the security industry is involved in every step of the cycle.

With the change in the role of the Central Bank that now sees them only issuing cash and destroying unfit notes, it has increasingly become the responsibility of the security industry to manage the circulation of cash within our economy.

Christo Terblanche, the MD of G4S Deposita, describes the company as a market leader in the development, manufacturing and supply of technology that facilitates the safe collection, processing, safeguarding, recycling and dispensing of cash.

G4S offers a customised, secure and reliable end-to-end solution for businesses operating in the retail, banking, self-service and payment sectors. It provides both the visible, front-end solution as well as back-end settlement solutions for customers requiring automated banking machines (ABMs), automated teller machines (ATMs), cash recycling systems, self-service and card payment systems as well as point of sale (POS) systems.

For the Retail Sector, G4S offers the CASH360 Retail Solution that includes a broad range of ABMs at the point of cash collection to count and validate each note being deposited. G4S also provides the banking sector with solutions that facilitate the secure and rapid circulation of cash ensuring customer satisfaction as well as the safety of both customers and staff.

All of this hardware is supported by locally developed software. The system manages all aspects linked to the devices, including transaction recording, user activity, physical and component monitoring as well as reconciliation, settlement and management reports providing customers with complete peace of mind.

“There has been wide acknowledgement of industry’s role in improvement of cash handling and the proliferation of cash payment instruments has helped in this process,” says Terblanche, who notes that companies are continually looking at ways in which to improve efficiency in cash processing and speed up the circulation of cash within the economy.

G4S invests in the technology used throughout the business and this investment has paid off enormously through the reduction in on-site attacks and cash in transit heists. According the South African Police Service national crime statistics, cash in transit heists have decreased by 62, 4% in the four years to 2013.

Terblanche notes that the G4S approach, shared by the industry, is to create a disincentive for thieves to strike in the first place, rather than trying to prevent an attempted attack which poses potential risk and inconveniences customers, staff and the general public.

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