Pub. 9 2014-2015 Issue 2

July | August 2014 15 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. C A P I T A L M A R K E T S G R O U P SINCE 1985, WE’VE DELIVERED THE FINANCIAL SERVICES community banks need. But only after establishing what they really want: a solidworking relationshipwith professionals who put people first. Call us to get started. • Portfolio Strategy, Sales and Service • Bond and Securities Underwriting/Trading • Comprehensive ALM and Derivatives Consulting • BancPath® and FlexLoan® via Asset Management Group on the checks when the checks were accepted by tellers over the counter. In another matter, a check payable jointly to a corporation and amortgage company was deposited into the corporation’s account along with several other checks payable to the corpo- ration. The teller did not look at any of the checks deposited and did not notice the one check payable jointly with the mortgage company. Two years later, the mortgage company made claim against the bank stating that the check was an insurance claim check and that the mortgage company had a 100 percent interest in the proceeds of the check. Because the check was missing themortgage company’s endorsement, the bank was liable to the mortgage company for its interest in the check. In all of these cases, the bank had a loss because the teller either did not look at the checks being deposited or did not understand the importance of properly examining deposited checks. Tellers have an important function in banking. When checks are being deposited, the teller needs to look at each check to verify that it is payable to the customer depositing the check and has been properly endorsed. Deposited checks drawn on your own bank need to be examined to see that the maker’s signature is a properly authorized signature. Checks For more information, call Kansas Bankers Surety at (785) 228-0000. payable to a corporation cannot be deposited to a noncor- porate account, even if the account is a business account with a similar name. Checks payable to joint payees need to be handled with utmost care. All joint payees must have endorsed the check, or the check must be deposited to an ac- count owned jointly by all joint payees. A check payable jointly to two or more corporations is almost impossible to properly accept because generally a corporation must deposit a check to its corporate account, and the check cannot be jointly deposited to two different joint payees’ corporate accounts. Tellers need to look at both the front and back of each check deposited. They need to have a good understanding of the bank’s procedures for verifying the maker’s signature on “on us” checks. They need to be careful with checks payable to a corporation. They need to see that the checks contain all necessary endorsements. When tellers have questions about a transaction, they need to contact a qualified supervisor to review the transaction. Neither the teller nor the supervisor should approve a transaction just because they know the cus- tomer and they always make an exception for that customer. The largest losses are often the result of exceptions made for several years for a known customer. The fact that the prior checks were not returned does not make it a safe transaction. 