«Izvestiya»: SAGA Technologies is the only national company producing armored ATMs *)

*) The SAGA Technologies press relations service considers it necessary to note that the expression «armored ATMs» is not exactly correct

The «Izvestiya» newspaper in its article «Banks purchase armored ATMs weighing more than 1 t» mentions the SAGA Technologies CJSC as the only Russian company which manufactures and supplies armored ATMs. The article raises the issues of banking equipment security, in particular – the problem of ATM tampering and theft.

«Nowadays in Russia there are about 180 thousand ATMs, – the newspaper informs. – According to Europay, consolidating the statistics about ATM crimes in Russia, in 2011 there were 53 ATM thefts, 17 of them took place in the 1^st quarter. In addition, even in the 1^st quarter of 2012 (according to the recent data) – 23 ATM thefts. Upon the information of the Main Directorate of the Internal Ministry of Russia, in 2012 65 ATM robberies and muggings took place in Moscow».

In all cases the criminals opened the ATMs in place or more often removed them to an undisclosed location to break. The most common targets for criminals are the devices installed in the places without security service – in the streets, in universities, shops and hospitals. The maximum loot is 10 million rubles, this is the limit for the ATM load, established by the Central Bank.

This forces the credit institutions to buy the armored ATMs which weigh more than 1 ton, as the newspaper informs. This equipment decreases the risk of criminal attacks. «It’s not easy to remove this ATM because of its weight», – commented Oksana Kalashnikova, the SAGA Technologies CJSC business development director.

The newspaper introduces the SAGA Technologies to the audience as the company producing the armored ATMs. However it is noted that the vast majority of this market sector is occupied by the western ATM producers: Diebold, NCR (both – USA) and Wincor Nixdorf (Germany).

«In Russia there are two more companies producing ATMs – Elara LLC and Dors LLC», – the newspaper states. But they told the «Izvestiya» that they will not «produce armored ATMs at the moment».

Source: IZVESTIYA

Information provided by SAGA Technologies:

The SAGA Technologies press relations service considers it necessary to note that the phrase «armored ATMs» is not exactly correct. It would be more correct to say that the ATMs supplied by the «big four» of the ATM manufacturers (NCR, Diebold, Wincor/Nixdorf, Hyosung) do not have a decent protection of the body frame in standard specification. The only protected part is the money storage which is a strongbox of some level of tamper-resistance.

The Russian banks do not order the additional protection of the ATMs because of high costs of optional extras. This can be explained by the increase of the ATM weight because of the use of additional metal structures and the resulting significant increase of logistics costs. That’s why this results in big and unjustified increase of the total ATM price when dispatching in Russia.

The SAGA Technologies has an exclusive long-term experience in equipping the ATMs with additional protection (reinforcement of doors, body frame, strongbox of high level of tamper-resistance).

We can offer the banks the ATMs of our own make with additional protection for an affordable price (not least because of the absence of big logistic expenses), which is important in case of big purchases.