Avoiding Losses on Treasury Checks

Presented by:
Mary Beth Guard and John Burnett
U.S. Treasury checks fall under a different set of rules than "normal" checks, literally. The stakes are far too great to "guess" about Treasury check issues. It is important to know exactly what the legal parameters are for handling these items so that you can follow them and minimize your losses and to keep on top of changes, as they occur.

This Webinar provides a comprehensive look at what every financial institution should know about these special checks. In particular, it will include a review of the Treasury check regulations, from describing the requirements for endorsing Treasury checks, to detailing the methods used to recover losses when checks are lost or stolen and negotiated fraudulently. You'll learn precautions to take to avoid losses, and deadlines imposed on the government for making final payment on its checks, as well as those affecting collections when things go wrong. We'll teach you to distinguish between declinations and reclamations, and bring you up to speed on the recent rash of bogus Treasury items. You’ll learn basic steps to protect your bank from counterfeit and altered Treasury checks. As part of the course materials, you will receive a copy of the latest rules and pertinent Treasury forms.

From this Webinar, you’ll take away:

• Official Treasury information about security features of
  U. S. Treasury checks
• Suggestions for documenting your verification of those security features
• Copies of the forms of powers of attorney and resolutions suggested by Treasury to meet their requirements for negotiation of treasury checks by attorneys in fact
• A description of five different types of powers of attorney accepted by Treasury and when each applies
• Information about when payment of a Treasury check can be considered final
• Information about how Treasury attempts to collect on government check fraud and losses
• Knowledge about who can endorse certain Treasury checks payable to minors and what documentation you should require from them
• A firm understanding of when certain payments (such as Social Security) are considered earned.

In spite of efforts to convert its payments to ACH, Treasury still issues millions of paper checks each year. It’s time to review your bank’s government check procedures to control losses in this area.

Who Should Attend?
Head tellers, branch and operations managers, customer service managers, new accounts personnel, security officers.

In spite of efforts to convert its payments to ACH, Treasury still issues millions of paper checks each year. It’s time to review your bank’s government check procedures to control losses in this area.

VIEW A 10 MINUTE SAMPLE
(requires Windows Media Player and IE).

About the speakers:  Mary Beth Guard
Mary Beth Guard currently serves as Executive Editor of BankersOnline.com and CEO of Glia Group, Inc., Mary Beth has had a long and distinguished career, graduating from law school in 1980. She has focused her work exclusively on the banking industry since 1984. Previously, Mary Beth served as EVP/General Counsel and COO for the Oklahoma Bankers Association, EVP of Specialized Services for Thomson Financial Publishing, and General Counsel for the Oklahoma State Banking Department. Mary Beth is on the advisory board for Bankers' Hotline and Compliance Action, as well as on the editorial board for ABA Bank Compliance magazine. She has presented training programs for virtually every major national financial industry association, as well as more than a dozen state bankers associations and a host of other organizations. In addition, Mary Beth has written more than a thousand banking-related articles and is a BOL Guru.

John Burnett
John Burnett is a 1979 alumnus of the ABA National Compliance School, and has served on its faculty for several years. He graduated with honors with the Class of 1990 from ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He is also a graduate of the BAI’s and the Massachusetts Banker Association’s Schools of Banking.

He joined Cape Cod Bank and Trust Company in 1971 and assumed his role as Compliance Officer in 1976. He also served as corporate secretary and secretary of CCBT’s Board of Directors, as well as Clerk of the bank’s holding company. After leaving the bank in 2004, John joined Glia Group, Inc. and became a part of the BOL Team in June, 2004.

Mr. Burnett is a member and former chair of the Massachusetts Bankers Association Legal and Regulatory Compliance Committee, and a former member of the American Bankers Association Compliance Executive Committee and NCS/NGCS Advisory Board. He served on ABA’s Truth in Savings Task Force, and has served on several ABA and Massachusetts Bankers seminar panels.

CD-ROM includes:

• Complete presentation (including slides and audio)
• Written Materials
• Follow-up Q & A

You have the right under this license agreement for this CD-ROM to use this presentation on a single-workstation. Use on a network is in violation of the copyright agreements. CD may be used by multiple users at a given institution but may not be placed on a network or in any other multi-user environment.

This has been approved for 2.5 hours CRCM/CSOP credit.