Bank robbers on endangered list in Germany

Bank robbers seem to be a dying breed in Germany: The number of robberies at banks, savings institutions and post offices has dropped by 95 per cent over the past three decades, reported dpa.

In 1993, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) counted 1,623 robberies of "financial institutions and post offices." Last year there were only 80.

Police, banks and insurers see several reasons for the phenomenon. In the mid-1990s, there were almost 70,000 bank branches in Germany; at the end of last year, there were 24,000, according to Germany's central bank. Bank robbers therefore have less choice of target today than in the past.

Added to this is technological progress and the decreasing importance of cash.

Furthermore, the risk for the perpetrators is extraordinarily high: the police are able to solve three quarters of the robberies.

"If additional security measures, such as low cash holdings, lead to correspondingly low expectations when it comes to loot, robberies are becoming unattractive crimes from a risk-benefit point of view," said a BKA spokesperson.