Editorial
Daredevil bank locker break-in
Restore the eroded customer trust
The incredible incident of robbery, emptying out lockers of ornaments valued at several crores of taka in Dhanmondi branch of Brac Bank has the smack of sensational Hollywood film script about it. After all, the underworld has become part of the global village -- thanks to some infective satellite TV channel movies.
The thugs had a style which makes us wary of all kinds of imagination/improvisations running riot with lure of wealth to grab it anyhow. Just think of the slow-motion deceptive nature of the heist staged with one-month-long drilling of a hole on the hotel floor just above the locker room of Brac Bank branch. The robbers made good with their tally of jewelry. Such an operation couldn't have been possible without the connivance of hotel staff and the bank insiders. Even so, we believe that the intensity of the secrecy surrounding the sequence of incidents is simply astounding. It either speaks of places brimming with thugs or that police intelligence has touched a new low.
The reports speak of the concerned bank officials spurning responsibility for the losses of locker customers arguing that they are not supposed to know what was in the safety boxes. But the fact is that physical protection of the locker is certainly bank's responsibility and with that naturally the articles contained in the locker. What is relevant is that there are two keys to a locker, one retained by the bank and the other given to the customer. To open the locker two keys are necessary, one won't do which upholds the principle that safe keeping of the valuables is the prime responsibility of the bank.
The customers pay a chunk of money for the locker service and wouldn't have at all resorted to it had they known that the bank wouldn't accept liability for any loss. We believe the access to the locker, confidential as it is, should nonetheless be subjected to inventorying at the time of registering and recording information about taking away of any article. The claim under the present circumstances may have to be settled by the court. The bank's rules cannot supersede the law of the land.
There should be a legal cover of the rights of the customers. The banks of their own should move in this direction to provide security to all forms of customer deposit.
We would draw attention to the fact that bank branches cannot be located, far less locker service maintained without fully securing the place of any kind of intrusion.
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