Hello all
About a year ago one of our branches found a plain white envelope with cash inside. There was no deposit ticket included with the cash and there was only one word on the envelope, "Deposit", no account number or name to be found anywhere. Since then, no customer has come forward asking where their deposit is etc. My question is, what should we do with this cash? We can't escheat it because we don't have a name or anything? Do we just put it in a GL with a proper description and call it a day? Thanks for your input.

Recheck your state escheat rules. I doubt that the state will just allow you to put it into income.

Al

I checked the WI state statutes and it addresses checks, drafts and similar instruments as well as Bank Deposits and fund IN a financial institution. I am thinking that this situation does not apply because the funds aren't deposited anywhere, nor would we even know where to deposit them because we don't have any idea who's funds they are. And it is cash so the first one is wiped out. I think the easiest answer would be to escheat but then again, we don't have a name, last known address or anything that we can give to the state as far as that kind of information.

Sounds like a pizza party in the Great White North

That was me, I was in a hurry and forgot the deposit slip. Just send it back to me, i've decided to close my account with you. Thanks

HappyGilmore
100 Sucker Way
Goober, LA 70123

In a somewhat related "wow, i never knew"

W.C. Fields was paranoid that he was going to die penniless, having left home at 11 to be a vaudeville performer, so anytime he had money, he would go into a bank and open an account and make a deposit. He rarely used his real name (william claude dukenfield), something ficticious, would deposit as little as $.50, up to thousands of dollars (remember, this was a different time and many people made $1.00 per day.

He was known to have opened no less than 750 accounts over his lifetime, many of which he never touched again after the initial deposit. He could not remember the number of accounts opened or location of many of these...

Make a charitable donation?

LOL Pizza party. You know how us bankers love to eat! Happy, the check is in the mail

I'm not familiar with Wisconsin law, but I'm betting it's not "finders keepers." As already suggested, it's abandoned or lost property even though it may not fit within the directions for a bank.

If anyone ever misses it: "We turned it over to the state" will read/sound better than "We just kept it."

Totally agree with you Ken. We decided the best course of action was to make a cashiers check with the money, hold it for five years and then escheat it.

Who is the payee on this cashier's check?

I believe we paid to the order of our bank.

That does not make a lot of sense as the money now belongs to the bank.

This cash belongs in the teller's cash over and shorts GL. Where have you been keeping this for the whole year? Known as a cash item it should have been accounted for somewhere on the books of the bank. Then it could be easily researched and returned to the customer should a claim be made.
Another example is what do you when a non-customer has made a withdrawal at your ATM and did not receive his cash? You usually wait for the non-customer to make a REG E claim at his bank and that bank asks for the money back from you. But if that claim never comes in you're left holding the money in a suspense GL (hopefully not left on the bottom of the ATM!). Neither example allows for escheatment to the state (California anyway) to the best of my knowledge.