Remonte Monitoring of Bank Branches

Over One Thousand Axis Cameras Monitor the Work in Russian Standard Bank Branches

Currently Russian Standard Bank is one of the largest privately owned retail banks in Russia with 26 Mill. customers and is one of the most recognizable trusted financial brands countrywide.

The Bank Challenge
Different branches are rarely equally busy. Long lines harm a bank's reputation in the eyes of customers and at the same time, low customer traffic per employee is not economically sustainable. Therefore, in order to achieve the greatest efficiency, banks need to optimize branch operations depending on the time of day, day of the week or date. Due to its individual characteristics, the financial sphere attracts various kinds of white-collar criminals. And many banks literally have to pay the price to find out who the criminals are among their staff. Discovering a potential fraudster or disloyal employee sooner will lessen the consequences of his or her tenure at the bank.
High standards of customer service require continuous real-time monitoring of the bank's branch operations. The management must have the ability to monitor branch loads, observe improper employee behavior or appearance in real time and stop unusual or illegal activity in its offices.

The Project
Russian Standard Bank was founded in 1999. Russian Standard holding company is the main shareholder in the bank. Today, the bank is one of the largest national financial institutions in the country. It has over 320 branches and 5,000 ATMs and terminals in Russia. Russian Standard Bank maintains high standards of corporate management and corporate ethics. The bank management adheres to international principles of management and business transparency. Bank employees are instructed to provide as much access as possible to financial services and the best level of service.
The objective of this project was to remotely monitor bank branches. It currently also includes two subordinate objectives: to detect employee violations of internal regulations and to identify the busiest offices in real time. The geographic distribution of branches throughout Russia makes this monitoring impossible without an efficient video surveillance system. The primary requirements for such a system must be high image quality, equipment reliability and the ability to work with an extensive network of video cameras.

Camera Selection
The bank held a call for tenders, taking into account its functional requirements and desires, in order to select a supplier. The bank branches have various layouts, so the project required both fixed and pan/tilt/zoom cameras with various properties. As a result, a shortlist of potential winners was drawn up, from which Axis was selected based on its technical and financial parameters.
The cameras selected for the project were Axis 213 PTZ and Axis P5512 PTZ network cameras, Axis M1011 fixed network cameras and Axis 212 PTZ network cameras with ultra-wide angle. Depending on the size and layout of rooms, 3-4 network cameras (on average) were installed in each branch. Today, the project uses a total of 1,012 Axis cameras. To handle the data, the bank developed its own software for the project. A network resource was developed for monitoring in order to display information transmitted from cameras in online mode. The resource includes a multi-user interface with online transmission, integration with the Active Directory and systematization of video streams by region. In order to reduce the load on communication channels, images are refreshed several times per minute and then archived in data storage.

The Result: Less Violations of Regulations and Fraudulent Activity
As a result, the bank's management gained a tool that allows them to monitor bank branch employee activity, to get an up-to-the-minute picture of how busy branches are and to detect violations of internal regulations and fraudulent activity. Information from cameras can be used to investigate complaints. In addition, many bank divisions use the video system for their own purposes (such as verifying correct placement of advertisements or IT equipment status).
"Executing the project has resulted in better customer service in bank branches. The number of complaints has decreased. We can now get a picture of what is happening in the branches in real time. Axis cameras have, for their part, successfully achieved the set objective", comments Maksim Goldin, Chief Specialist of the Project Development and Execution Department at Russian Standard Bank's Branch Network Division