So, this is a serious screw up. Garda, like their competitors Brinks and Loomis process money for banks. For instance, a company like Target may bank with Bank of America, US Bank, Wells Fargo, etc.
However, historically every bank was regional. So a bank like US Bank was a Midwest bank (Minneapolis). If Target wanted to use US Bank on the West Coast for some of its stores, it was a problem because they didn’t have operations there. To fix that, a bank like US Bank may use an “outsourced processor” like Garda to process the deposits for some of their stores on the West coast.
So a processor like Garda has a “vault” in LA. In that vault, they process work for many banks (i.e. Us Bank, Wells, Bank of America... and many more). As deposits come in from many stores associated with many banks, the funds are allocated to the specific bank.
If an auditor from a Bank X comes in and says “I expect to count $8 million in your possession for Bank X” and it isn’t there, that is a huge problem.
I’d hate to work for Garda right now (or any of the outsourced processors). Lots of people think banks are archaic, but one thing they do great is audit funds. This is going to raise the level of scrutiny across the industry.
Likewise, this can’t just be coin. Most businesses keep as much coin as they can and don’t deposit much. Being off by $9 million in coin in one location would be crazy.
Likewise, most of these vaults have more security than most people have ever seen. They keep every piece of paper they receive in a holding cage for months and can find a paper clip deposited three weeks ago and tell you what customer and store deposited it.
There are cameras on every person almost all the time. The people who run these vaults are militant. Stealing money in a vault is extremely difficult. If you want to steal money, there are far easier ways to do it.
It smells of an accounting issue or a very inside job at a specific vault.
However, historically every bank was regional. So a bank like US Bank was a Midwest bank (Minneapolis). If Target wanted to use US Bank on the West Coast for some of its stores, it was a problem because they didn’t have operations there. To fix that, a bank like US Bank may use an “outsourced processor” like Garda to process the deposits for some of their stores on the West coast.
So a processor like Garda has a “vault” in LA. In that vault, they process work for many banks (i.e. Us Bank, Wells, Bank of America... and many more). As deposits come in from many stores associated with many banks, the funds are allocated to the specific bank.
If an auditor from a Bank X comes in and says “I expect to count $8 million in your possession for Bank X” and it isn’t there, that is a huge problem.
I’d hate to work for Garda right now (or any of the outsourced processors). Lots of people think banks are archaic, but one thing they do great is audit funds. This is going to raise the level of scrutiny across the industry.
Likewise, this can’t just be coin. Most businesses keep as much coin as they can and don’t deposit much. Being off by $9 million in coin in one location would be crazy.
Likewise, most of these vaults have more security than most people have ever seen. They keep every piece of paper they receive in a holding cage for months and can find a paper clip deposited three weeks ago and tell you what customer and store deposited it.
There are cameras on every person almost all the time. The people who run these vaults are militant. Stealing money in a vault is extremely difficult. If you want to steal money, there are far easier ways to do it.
It smells of an accounting issue or a very inside job at a specific vault.