How Long Do Banks Keep Camera Footage?

Banks use camera footage as a fundamental part of their security infrastructure. This surveillance helps protect assets, monitor activities, and maintain a secure environment for customers and staff. The footage also deters criminal behavior and provides valuable records.

Factors Influencing Footage Retention

The duration banks retain camera footage is influenced by regulatory obligations, internal security protocols, and the nature of the recorded activity. Federal regulations, such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), require banks to maintain records for detecting financial crimes like money laundering and fraud. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) also emphasizes protecting customer financial information, including through physical safeguards like camera systems.

Banks establish internal policies based on risk assessments, incident history, and storage capacity. Footage from high-risk areas, like ATM vestibules or teller lines, may be retained longer than general common areas. If an incident, such as fraud or a dispute, occurs, the relevant footage is flagged and preserved until the investigation or legal proceedings are resolved.

Common Retention Periods

The typical retention period for bank camera footage for general surveillance is between 30 and 90 days. Many financial institutions aim for a minimum of 90 days, allowing time to investigate fraudulent transactions or security breaches that may not be reported immediately.

Footage from specific areas or related to particular incidents can be held for much longer. For instance, video from ATMs may be retained for up to six months or even a year. If a specific event is captured, such as a robbery or a transaction dispute, that particular segment of footage is archived and kept until any associated legal or internal processes are fully resolved.

Requesting Footage

Directly obtaining bank camera footage as an individual is generally not possible due to privacy regulations and security concerns. Banks prioritize confidentiality and security, meaning they cannot release surveillance footage without proper legal justification. Personal requests are typically insufficient.

The most common method for accessing bank camera footage involves law enforcement. If an incident constitutes a crime, filing a police report is the initial step, as police agencies can formally request the footage as part of their investigation. In civil matters, legal counsel can issue a subpoena, which is a court order compelling the bank to release the footage. Such requests must be highly specific, detailing the exact date, time, location, and nature of the incident. Acting quickly is important because even incident-related footage has a finite retention period if it is not specifically flagged for extended preservation.