Does anyone know if there are any regulations that would prevent a bank from allowing a business owner, from accessing his/her personal account from the same Online Banking access id and passcode?

Two scenarios, one is the business is a sole ownership and the other is a corporation, with just the one 'stockholder'.

I think the sole owner would be OK, but I have reservations about the incorporated situation.

Thanks in advance.

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David J. Mulkerin
Opinions expressed are mine and not my employers, who gets them whether they want them or not.

No prohibition, but an invitation for problems. When ownership of funds is transferred from the corporation to the individual (or vise versa), it is a funds transfer. Can you handle the record keeping requirements if this is done on-line?

IRS requires certain minimum documentation for loans. You don't want to get dragged into an audit, having to produce bank records to document what should have been done by the customer with cancelled checks.

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Al Miller, CRCM
Fremont Bank (CA)
(510) 790-5825
(510) 505-5211 FAX

Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily shared by my employer.

I guess my question is:

Are you just asking whether there's a problem with a person using the same online user ID to access both his business and personal account, or are you saying the accounts would be tied together on online banking and that in addition to simply accessing the data, the person could conduct cross-account transactions?

One thought that comes to mind even in the pure information-only context is that you would only want to assign a user name and password to an individual who is the duly appointed authorized signer for the business entity -- not every stockholder, for example. (Imagine every shareholder of AOL getting a peek at the checkbook, for instance.) Authorized signers typically change over time. If you have assigned the same user name and password to an individual as you have to a business he's affiliated with, you need to figure out how you will be able to cut off access/change the password, whatever, when the individual is no longer affiliated with the business or is no longer an authorized signer on its account.

And I agree with Al that if you're talking about transactional capabilities, you have a whole other can of worms.

Mary Beth - They are looking to do your second scenario, the accounts would be tied together on online banking and that in addition to simply accessing the data, the person could conduct cross-account transactions.

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David J. Mulkerin
Opinions expressed are mine and not my employers, who gets them whether they want them or not.