-97,4% compared to 2007. The photograph of Ossif, the ABI research center on security, at the 2022 Banking and Security Conference.
Bank robberies decreased by 26,9% in one year, from 119 in 2020 to 87 in 2021. The so-called risk index - i.e. the number of robberies per 100 branches - also decreased from 0,5 to 0,4.
The positive trend that has characterized the phenomenon in recent years is also the result of the joint work of banks and law enforcement agencies. Suffice it to say that, between 2007 and 2021, counter robberies decreased by 97,4%, going from 3.364 in 2007 to 87 in 2021.
These are the main results of the survey conducted by Ossif, the ABI research center on security, which were presented today during the Banking and Security 2022 conference, the two-day work on the key issues of bank security.
Here, more in detail, what emerges from the Ossif survey on bank robberies in the 2021.
The map of the robberies
In 2021, no bank hits in Basilicata, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Molise, Puglia, Trentino-Alto Adige and Valle d'Aosta. Robberies decreased in: Calabria (-50%, from 2 to 1), Emilia-Romagna (-70,6%, from 17 to 5), Lombardy (-4,8%, from 21 to 20), Piedmont ( -16,7%, from 6 to 5), Sicily (-11,1%, from 18 to 16), Tuscany (-70%, from 10 to 3), Umbria (-25%, from 4 to 3) and remained unchanged in Abruzzo (3 robberies), Campania (9 robberies), Marche (1 robbery), Sardinia (1 robbery) and Veneto (4 robberies). Increases, on the other hand, occurred in Lazio (with 16 robberies out of 9).
Investments in security, the Anti-theft Guide and the prefectures' adhesion to the Anti-Crime Protocol
Italian banks invest on average over 500 million euros every year to make their branches even more protected and safe. Adopting increasingly modern and effective protection measures and training its employees also through a special "Safety guide for counter operators", created by Ossif in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and the Prefectures. The Anti-theft Guide is a significant reference point for those who work every day in bank branches: a sort of vademecum on how to behave during robberies, but also useful information to prevent them as well as to facilitate the control of the territory and the investigative activity of the Forces of the 'Order.
In 2021 the ABI shared the new version of the Anti-Crime Protocol with the Ministry of the Interior to strengthen collaboration, through dialogue and exchange of information, and to fight the criminal phenomenon of bank robberies in an increasingly effective way. To date, the Protocol has been adopted by as many as 61 prefectures.