A consortium of South African companies, industry associations and non-profit organisations is pioneering a new approach to cash collection and processing that could help to reduce violent robberies in major shopping centres.
The partners in the initiative – which include Business against Crime South Africa (BACSA), Standard Bank, the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA), Liberty Properties and SBV Services – have implemented a pilot project for a secure cash distribution system at two of Gauteng’s largest shopping malls. Following the success of the pilot, the system is set to be rolled out nationwide.
“Secure cash centres have been established that enable greater efficiencies in terms of cash recycling and also reduce associated risks. Cash is transported by way of a pneumatic tube system or in a secure trolley that makes use of a combination of biometric tracking technology and various self-protection devices to enable the trolley to move easily and securely without affecting the public. The newly introduced tube system allows retailers to place their cash into canisters and into the system, from where it speeds at nine metres-per-second to a cash-hub located within the centre, from where the money is then processed and re-cycled for use within the shopping centre,” SBV explains. It removes cash in transit vehicles and armed guards from the equation and reduces the amount of cash on site at retailers and banks, dramatically lowering the potential for violent confrontations with armed robbers.
Self-contained
The basic principle of the system is that cash is recycled within the mall via a secure cash distribution centre, eliminating the need for cash in transit vehicles to collect and deliver money in crowded public areas. The cash distribution centre is a secure vault, away from the public areas of the mall and protected with a combination of technology and physical security. It has been designed to a set of minimum standards to ensure the necessary protection for the people and the assets.
Larger tenants – the big banks and retail brands – move their cash to the cash distribution centre by means of a secure air tube system. Smaller stores, meanwhile, can use various alternative cash distribution services to deposit their money at the centre. That means it’s no longer necessary for armed guards to carry big amounts of cash in public within the mall environment.
Radio frequency identification tags are used to identify each depositor and the receipt of each container is verified by video surveillance. Automated counting devices in the distribution centre offer an audit trail and count, sort and recycle the cash. In addition to the security benefits, everyone benefits from less time spent counting money and queuing at the bank.
A clean sheet
One of the brains behind the project is Debbie Pryer, project management consultant to BACSA and a cash risk expert with 30 years of industry experience. She came up with the design after starting with a clean sheet of paper and the goal of saving the lives of security personnel and innocent people caught in the crossfire in mall robberies.
The need for such an initiative started to become clear in around 2009 when shopping centre robberies started to soar, perhaps because cash in transit companies had made such big advances in the technologies and processes they used to secure their vehicles. Criminals started to target the next most vulnerable part of the money supply chain – collection of cash from malls.
Even now, as some major crime categories are in decline, the SA Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics for the 2011/12 financial year showed a substantial 8.8% increase in robberies at business premises over the previous year.
“Armed robberies in shopping centres have a major impact on our retail members,” says Leigh Brown, project coordinator of the CGCSA’s Consumer Goods Risk Initiative (CGRI). “As anchor tenants in many large shopping malls, member stores face major reputational and financial risks as a result of robberies. Most of all, our retail members are committed to creating a safe and pleasant environment for their staff and shoppers.”
“We kept putting in more guns, but we still kept losing people,” says Pryer. “I wanted to present a solution that would get the armed guards out of the shopping malls.” The solution – which complies with the South African Reserve Bank’s cash-handling standards – benefits every player in the mall’s money supply ecosystem.
An elegant solution
Now there is little need for cash in transit companies to collect money every day, meaning that the points of vulnerability while the money is on the road and when it is delivered are also eliminated. It’s an elegant solution since that money would inevitably simply be counted at a bank cash distribution before being redistributed to ATMs and banks branches at great expense.
Stores in the mall can move cash off their premises several times a day – even on Sundays and public holidays – without the costs of getting armed guards to collect or exposing staff members to the risks of carrying cash in public from the store to the bank. They can keep just as much money as they need for a float in their tills. If they need more, it can be sent to them via the secure tube, Pryer explains. Cash-handling costs are lower and reconciling cash deposits at the end of the business day is simpler. There’s also potential to reduce insurance and security costs.
Banks also don’t need to keep huge amounts of cash on hand, nor do they receive as many large cash deposits from store tenants. They, too, can access what they need from the central distribution centre. Their ATMS are replenished several times a day from the money in the cash distribution centre, allowing ATM cash levels to be kept low enough that they are not worthwhile targets for ATM bombers, Pryer adds. Likewise, as the cash is being recycled throughout the day is there is no build up in the centre.
Safer shopping
For shopping mall owners, the benefits are offering the public a safer shopping environment while reducing security costs.
The CGRI has facilitated negotiations between members, Debbie Pryer and shopping centre owners and managers for the pilot in line with the council’s focus on helping members mitigate the risks crime poses for their businesses, says Brown. The pilot project has exceeded expectations among the national retailers who participated and they are eager to see it rolled out at more shopping malls.
They have reported lower cash-handling costs across the board as a result of moving to the new system. But the project isn’t just about the economic calculation. “If just one life is saved by this project, then it is worthwhile,” says Brown.
Pryer says the pilot has proven that the model is viable for large regional malls with more than 100 000-square-metres of retail space. But the numbers indicate that it could be as applicable for smaller malls with just 30 000-square-metres of retail space. “That means we could use this system in 70% or more of South Africa’s malls,” Pryer says.
In the pilot, the project cost was subsidised by six service providers who provided their equipment to help prove the viability of the concept. But Pryer says the pilot shows that the R6-million cost of setting up a secure cost distribution centre is easily paid for by the benefits. It is envisaged that shopping centre owners will pay for installation of the infrastructure while security firms will provide operational services.
Interest piqued
Ten malls nationwide are already set to adopt the system, and negotiations are under way with another 15. The system has also drawn interest in European malls – where companies are interested in the efficiencies it offers – as well as other emerging markets where banks and retailers are grappling with similar violent crime risks as their South African counterparts.
“This new offering is yet another example of our consistent innovation in the management of cash. It provides the ability to move cash behind-the-scenes, giving a greater sense of security and ease that enables our clients to continue with their day-to-day business activities. SBV Services will be rolling this out to more major shopping centres country wide in the near future,” says Grant Dunnington, CEO of SBV solutions.
The trend of gun-free cash distribution and collection is picking up across South Africa. In an unrelated project, G4S Cash Solutions South Africa is offering tenants at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping near Durban a gun free cash collection service.
This article was first published in Synergy magazine, reprinted with permission.
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