Materiality 1
- Contributions to SDGs
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Seven Bank will work on this Materiality through the development of a safe and secure social platform by offering a settlement infrastructure and contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9, 11 and 16.
Changes in the society and associated issues as seen by Seven Bank
In recent years, the financial environment in Japan has changed significantly, and even as various digital settlements enabled by technological innovations expanded, there has been rising concerns over increasingly crafty and sophisticated financial crimes and security. In addition, people feel anxious over the decline in the number of counters and ATMs of financial institutions as well as settlements (cash shortage) during frequently occurring natural disasters. It is important for Seven Bank to offer an infallible security system and play the role of social infrastructure that can be used with ease of mind even in emergencies such as during a natural disaster.
Changes in Seven Bank and its approach to the issue
Seven Bank will leverage the knowledge it has cultivated since its inception in various new settlement services and proactively adopt technology innovation to offer a secure and efficient settlement infrastructure. Moreover, it will develop a safe and secure financial platform conforming to the changes of time in cooperation with stakeholders led by financial institutions.
ATMs for greater security and peace of mind
Stable operation of ATMs
Seven Bank’s ATMs operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in principle. Providing an environment that anyone can safely use requires collaboration with partner companies with highly specialized skills that conduct from response to ATM failures to providing security for machines and guarded transport. Depending on locations where ATMs are installed, some ATMs are highly likely to run out of cash due to more frequent cash withdrawal while other ones would be readily full up with cash deposited. By analyzing such usage pattern and operational situation of each ATM in cooperation with security companies, and setting timing of replenishing cash according to the usage pattern, the frequency and duration of stoppages have been minimized.
- Normal Situations
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- ■ System Base Redundancy
- The relay system that forms the backbone of the network and ATM support centers and call centers that are our points of contact with customers have been set up in two locations in eastern and western Japan to prevent interruption of transactions due to a disaster or other reason. The relay system has been structured to maintain normal operations, without a moment of downtime.
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- ■ Security Measures
- Seven Bank and its partner financial institutions are connected by a network of dedicated lines. In addition, data is encrypted according to the type of transaction, with automatic detection of unauthorized access.
- Emergencies
- ATM Call Centers also monitor our ATMs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and remotely recover out-of-service ATMs. In case of ATM failures during use by customers, a cash card, etc. is remotely returned in order not to make the customers wait. When a cash card, etc. cannot be returned remotely during the failure, ATM Call Centers promptly call for dispatch of security companies, and appropriately respond to such customers in trouble, aiming to restore the ATM quickly in cooperation with companies in charge of maintenance. Through this collaboration with partner companies, Seven Bank’s ATMs are able to achieve a 99.98% operating rate. Even when a blackout occurs during a transaction, it is possible to complete a transaction uninterrupted. Seven Bank ATMs embed Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) batteries. Even after the ATM is suspended, the ATM user can still inquire using the intercom and security functions are maintained, just in case a blackout occurs.
ATM Functions That Anyone Can Use with Peace of Mind
Our aim is for Seven Bank ATMs to be capable of being used by anyone at any time, easily and with peace of mind.
- Voice Guidance Service
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We provide a voice guidance service so that visually impaired customers can access our ATMs with peace of mind even when on their own. Using this service, customers can make deposits, withdraw money, or check their balance by operating an ATM in accordance with voice guidance provided over the built-in interphone.* This service is available through all of the more than 26,000 Seven Bank ATMs nationwide.
Interphone (telephone) location
- Measures to protect privacy
- Seven Bank ATMs are equipped with “rear-view mirrors” that allow users to see what is behind them, and the screens are coated with a “special side-view prevention film” that stops people standing nearby from seeing the displays when users input the PIN and monetary amount. In addition, the ATM notifies users if they forget to take their card when they start to walk away, in an effort to make transactions safe and give people peace of mind.
- Safety measures for cards left behind
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When users forget to take their card after they fi nish a transaction, the ATM calls out as they begin to move away.
If the users do not return, the ATM automatically pulls in the card and keeps it inside the ATM. When the users return, they can use the interphone to contact the call center, and if they can identify themselves, the card is returned on the spot.
Contributing to the Safety and Security of Society as a Whole
Prevention of Financial Crimes
Seven Bank is proactively working to prevent financial crimes to ensure all customers can use its services securely by leveraging the know-how it has accumulated in financial crime prevention, a network of more than 27,000 ATMs across Japan, and the Seven Bank Group’s expertise in developing IT solutions.
Initiatives for preventing financial crimes
Recently, financial crimes and fraudulent transactions targeting financial institutions and their customers are becoming increasingly crafty and frequent. Seven Bank, recognizing the specialty of its banking business based on non-face-toface transactions primarily through ATMs, focuses on preventing financial crimes and protecting customers’ assets, in order to ensure that customers can use the bank’s services with security. Specifically, we have the Financial Crime Risk Control Division as a dedicated unit to combat financial crimes, which prevents money laundering, eliminates fraudulent accounts and prevents communications fraud and other fraudulent activities, by monitoring and filtering transactions and watching social media for information on selling, buying or fraudulent use of accounts in cooperation with other divisions and subsidiaries, cooperating also with the police and other investigating authorities as appropriate.
For ensuring security for customers using ATMs
Seven Bank’s ATMs are provided with measures against peeking at the keypad to make PINs or transaction amounts unviewable by others. These ATMs also display and sound alerts to prevent bank transfer frauds when customers attempt to transfer money. We also take measures to detect any suspicious object attached to an ATM and unusual transactions as well as to prevent unauthorized acquisition of credit card information (skimming) at all times.
Cooperation with the police, public bodies, partner financial institutions, etc.
Seven Bank has received a letter of appreciation from the police for its contribution to the detection of financial crimes by cooperating in more than 90,000 cases a year, which includes providing information about ATM camera images and account transactions as requested by the police, the Regional Taxation Bureaus, bar associations, and other public bodies nationwide.
In August 2022, ACSiON, our security subsidiary, signed an agreement on joint response to cybercrimes with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which highly evaluates the fraud detection technology the company has developed over the years, to further strengthening our cooperation with the department.
In addition, we are seeking to strengthen our relationships with external parties and willing to mutually utilize and accumulate know-how from each other, for example, by hosting training sessions for working police officers and financial crime prevention staff from partner financial institutions.
Disaster Support
Dispatch of Mobile ATM Vehicle
After the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, we dispatched mobile ATM vehicles to regions where considerable time was required to resume ATM businesses.
From October 2015 to March 2016, we regularly dispatched mobile ATM vehicles to Katsurao Village, Fukushima Prefecture, which is designated as an evacuation zone due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, to support the reconstruction of the region.
Collaboration with Partner Companies
Relations with Partner Financial Institutions
Since its founding, Seven Bank has provided ATM services that can be accessed “anytime, anywhere, by anyone, and with safety and security,” while providing various values to our partner financial institutions, etc. We have built strong relationships of trust by offering Seven Bank’s ATM network infrastructure, operations expertise and management know-how, by enhancing customer convenience and by helping reduce the operational and management burden of the ATMs of our partner financial institutions. We also take into consideration the challenges and needs of our partner financial institutions and continually evolve our unique added value to increase convenience by, among other means, supporting cards issued overseas by major international companies and offering various types of electronic money and new settlement services such as QR and bar-code settlement.
We also offer our expertise in preventing fraudulent accounts with our consolidated subsidiary Bank Business Factory Co., Ltd., thereby providing new support services as countermeasures to money laundering and back-office support on commission for financial institutions, striving to contribute to solving social issues in the finance industry as a whole.
Relations with ATM Manufacturers
Seven Bank develops and manufactures its ATMs jointly with its manufacturing partners. To develop and manufacture our unique ATMs that are both simple and highly functional, we stand in our customers’ shoes and share yet-unmaterialized needs, following our commitment to achieve goals through repeated discussions with our partners from the conceptual stage.
Our ATMs are assembled in Japan by our partner companies, and Seven Bank’s officers and employees regularly pay unannounced observation visits to confirm security, operating efficiency, etc. In addition, sensors within ATMs carry out preventive maintenance at the first sign of a problem, and timely inspections are done as necessary, to stop outages from occurring. If ATM maintenance is required due to an unforeseen problem, we send a maintenance worker from our partner company’s affiliate to restore the ATM to service, thus minimizing downtime.
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