Crime story: Mexico City's banks have let down their guard, police charge, with predictable results.

More than a year after requiring banks to pay for their own security, the government and bankers are still squabbling over who should be responsible. Meanwhile, Mexico City's thieves have nearly doubled their raids on the capital's financial institutions.

In the first nine months of 2003, police recorded more than 187 robberies of financial institutions in the city, believed to be the work of at least 25 gangs. Before 2001, when the government withdrew its free security guards, there were never more than 100 assaults in a year, according to official figures.

It isn't just banks that are affected. More than 1,300 account-holders have been mugged at an automatic cash machine or on the way home from a bank in that period, police say. In response, the government in late September formed a new intelligence organization to study and prevent the mugging of customers. "The bank robberies are increasing, and that is a problem, but the banks have money," says police spokesman Quentin Lopez, of the Secretaria de Seguridad Publica del Distrito Federal. "Our first responsibility is to the account-holders, for their security"

As of May 2002, banks were required to meet a series of new security measures, such as installing cameras, prohibiting use of cell phones and hiring their own guards, The government has since temporarily shut down 13 Mexico City branches for failing to comply. It hasn't been easy, even if better security is in the interest of the financial institutions' customers, police say. "The banks don't want to cooperate with us," says Enrique Gonzalez, chief analyst with the capital police. "Many banks don't have adequate security."

The president of the Association of Mexican Bankers, Manuel Medina More of Banamex, declined to talk about the situation. "He does not answer questions about that subject," says Angeles Meraz, assistant director of media relations for Banamex. "And neither does anybody else" in the association, Meraz says.

Moneterrey's Banca Afirme seems to have gotten it right. The small bank, which has seven offices in the capital, has never had a branch robbed in its six years in Mexico City. "Security for us is part era service that has to complement a product," Afirme CEO Julio Cesar Villarreal told reporters after receiving an award from the city government for being the safest institution in the city. Banca Afirme has set the standard, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City's Chief of Police, told reporters. "This is what we want for the entire city," he said.

New security technology--especially digital security cameras--could help curb robberies in Mexico. says Kevin O'Brien, director of security services for the Latin American division of risk-consulting company Kroll.

Clear view. In the past three years, "there has been a revolution in the advancement of digital cameras and the systems that run them," says O'Brien, who predicts that all reputable financial institutions will have digital security systems within five years. Such systems "give you a much higher probability of identifying the bad guys," he says. "It's not a black-and-white, blurred picture."

Technology is part of the answer. But so is spending money on the right policies, say Victor Torres, a professor at the Institute Panamericano de Alta Direccion de Empresa. Government and the banks are equally at fault, he argues. The banks need better systems, he says, but "in the king term, the government needs to work on solving the economic and social problems that ... contribute to such crime." Until then. more guns and cameras--whoever pays for them will have to do.

CORRIE MACLAGGAN * MEXICO CITY