Letting Customers Into The Branch Early

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Question:

Recently, notification was sent to all of our branches that they are to open to the public 5 minutes early. Does this violate any security issues? Does this affect our insurance coverage, being that we are opening prior to our scheduled time? If we were robbed during this brief period of time, are we covered?

Answer:

In my opinion, what your administration is trying to do is "one-up" your banking neighbors. You can now say you are open longer hours and earlier than any other bank in town. It's a marketing selling point - or so it is assumed by marketing. As long as your posted hours are 8:55 a.m. to whatever, you should be fine with insurance and security. However, if you let people in before your posted hours, you could be opening yourself up to a problem - particularly if there is a robbery during that five minute period.

First published on BankersOnline.com 9/16/02