One of our employees has lost her key to the bank building. Should we re-key? We recently installed a 12 button programmable lock to eliminate the need for keys, but a missing key if found can still get in the bank.

What's your risk? Do you have perimiter alarms that will sound if the door is breached after hours? If another employee found it would they be able to get to sensitive data during hours?

How big is your building - what would it cost to re-key?

Does the employee have an idea where they lost it? If it's in a snow bank along the snowmobile trail, why bother. If it was left in the bank parking lot then that's a different story.

Does the key or key chain identify the key as a bank key?

If the key says XYZ bank on the key or fob and was dropped in the parking lot of the main office I'd re-key regardless of the cost. If the key was lost away from the bank and there's little chance anyone would know that it's a bank key, why bother?

In short - there are too many variables for a single answer.

Two questions you need to ask? 1. What is really at risk - if someone used the key after hours is everything important locked up and would alarms go off? If yes to both above than you've got office supplies at risk until the alarm response is onsite. 2. Can the person with the key idntify it is to the bank and the location(and/or doors) it works? We had an employee lose their keys while on vacation out of town and there was no way anyone would connect to our bank. We had another situation where the key chain identified the person and their address. It was a director and he paid to have the bank rekeyed. I would always error on the side of caution, but it really depends on the risk. We gave up keys and went to programmable chips several years ago. Keys are only for a select few. The chip systems are very affordable and so much better in many ways. Actually the last building had a keypad entry, it cost more, but is even easier to control and monitor.

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Actually the last building had a keypad entry, it cost more, but is even easier to control and monitor.

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Unless power goes out and your keypad is not on the backup generator.

Anyway, I would rekey.

Thanks for the response from several of you. I don't think there is much risk in that the keys were lost miles away from the bank and were not identifiable in any way. We do have alarms and cameras 24-7 on all entrances, the ATM and the vault area. The only real risk is vandalism or some other kinds of mischief and I believe the chances of that are small

Change the keys what your going to spend a couple hundred bucks . I like to sleep at night .

How do you know the keys were not stolen from the employee to be used in the morning for a morning glory?

Unless you know the keys can not be recovered by someone (i.e. they were lost in the Atlantic) I would recommend you re-key the locks.

The keypad has a battery backup. The power goes off frequently in that small city due to excessive number of squirels getting on transformers. Never had a problem with the battery backup - good question though.