Bram Berkowitz

Bank robberies decreased marginally in federal fiscal year 2017 from the prior fiscal year and declined in New England overall, according to data from the Boston division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  

The stagnant numbers are not a surprise, according to experts, but the slight decrease could signal a change in crime habits, as technology continues to disrupt the banking industry. 

“The majority of robbers are nonviolent … note passers that are statistically shown to be looking for a quick fix for their drug dependency,” Ben Craigie, director of compliance and training at the Massachusetts Bankers Association, told Banker & Tradesman. “Some branches are moving toward completely cashless.” 

There were 175 bank robberies in Massachusetts in federal fiscal year 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 to Sept. 30, 2017), six less than in federal fiscal year 2016, according to the FBI. In all New England states except for Connecticut, there were 212 bank robberies, down from 235 in the prior fiscal year, according to the FBI. 

“The FBI Boston Division’s Violent Crimes Task Force is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to decrease the amount of robberies here in New England,” Kristen Setera, spokesperson for the FBI’s Boston division, said in a statement. “We’ve done a considerable amount of outreach with the banking and armored transportation industries, and we routinely share the latest intelligence and trends with our law enforcement partners to help them get ahead of the threat and prevent these crimes.” 

Banks Eschew Cash 

Banks have tried several new initiatives and continue to build on existing ones to deter bank robberies. 

Some of these are more reactive , said Craigie, such as training the bank teller to walk away to a locked part of the branch or backroom after receiving a note from a potential bank robber. This strategy, if it’s within the context of the safety of customers and other bank staff on hand, has the possibility of making the suspect feel uneasy and might cause them to leave the branch, he said. 

In addition, bankers for years have used The Massachusetts Bankers Association’s Mass Most Wanted website to post pictures of bank robbers and offer rewards for tips, increasing coordination among those in the banking community as well as local, state and federal law enforcement. 

But other approaches are much more proactive, such as making bank branches cashless. 

“In that sense, it would [presumably] be a deterrent up front because the majority are going to do some research, so I would think cashless branch would be well known to bank robbers,” said Craigie, adding that cashless branches are still in the experimental stages in the U.S. 

The theory, however, has played out in other countries such as Sweden, perhaps the most cashless society in the world. 

Media outlets report that most of Sweden’s bank branches have stopped handling cash and in 2016, cash accounted for only 2 percent of the value of all payments, according to Riksbanken, the country’s central bank.  

Only 11 bank robberies were reported in Sweden in 2017, compared to 110 eight years earlier, according to The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.  

A Potential Shift 

New Hampshire saw the biggest decrease in bank robberies of any New England state. The Granite State had 12 bank robberies in FY17, a drop from 29 in FY16, according to the FBI. 

While coordination with law enforcement and proper training certainly played a role in the decline, it is likely more attributed to the shift to digital, said Christiana Thornton, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Bankers Association. 

“In general, in talking with bankers, the threat has in many ways transitioned to cyberattacks or bad actors trying to get at financial institutions through technology,” she said. 

Data from the credit scoring company FICO shows there was a 70 percent increase in the number of debit cards that were compromised in 2016 at ATMs and at card readers used by merchants.  

The number of card readers at ATMs and merchant devices that were hacked that same year rose 30 percent, FICO reported. 

An October 2016 Nilson report said that card fraud will grow an additional 42 percent by 2020 – in addition to the 20 percent increase experienced in 2015.  

“Bank robberies are still a priority,” said Thornton. “But when it comes to debit card fraud or credit card fraud, there is a significant amount of resources being devoted to those activities as criminals have gotten smarter.”