A customer comes in and says they lost their Certificate of deposit so you complete an Affidavit of lost certificate, they sign it you cash it. Ten years later somebody comes in with the original and wants to know where the money is. The retention period has passed so it has gone to the shreader and you have no proof of anything. What do you do?

Nobody has an answer for me??

Haven't had that one happen yet. So, no images of the transaction & take it the somebody coming in is the customer or their representative. I suppose get a legal opinion...sorry, no help here.

What's your bank's rationale for not moving to book entry CDs?

We have moved to just giving a receipt and then they sign a signature card. This is an old one.

Any record of the check issued in payment?

No,it was cashed in so long ago that retention is long gone. Any thing they had went to the shreder.

You say 'somebody' comes in, is it the original account holder?

If the records are gone, there obviously isn't anything you can do. The time deposit was either 1) redeemed or 2) escheated to the state.

Just as state and federal law limit your your record retention requirements, they also limit the ability to make claims on a contract past a certain time. If your record retention requirement has run then it is likely that your state's statute of limitations on making a contractual claim has run too.

I had an experience with an S&L where a customer closed ten CDs ($125,000) on Affidavits of Loss shortly after a merger was announced. About three months after the merger was completed, he presented the originals and demanded his money.

Took a couple of weeks (and daily threats to report me to the NJ Banking Dept)but the Affidavits were finally located. The look on his face was priceless!

He had counted on the confusion of the merger to 'lose' the proof of his 'no-book' close outs! Had he waited a while longer, he may have gotten away with it!

You are lucky, would have loved to see the look on that face.