One of our loan officers issued a cashier's check payable to a customer, however, he forgot to sign the cashier's check. He wants to put a stop payment on it. I know you can't return a cashier's check as a stop payment (it was just issued today). What can we do about this cashier's check? If another bank is willing to accept it for deposit aren't we ok to just let it go through and if another bank won't, then the customer can come back and get it signed?

I'll start with the easist solution, can you contact the customer to bring it back to be signed?

they can't get ahold of the customer. if they continue to try and the customer doesn't answer and has already cashed the check somewhere else, will we have to pay it. I don't think we would want to return it as a missing signature if it is actually ok to pay.

update: they did get ahold of the customer and the customer said they will mail us the check back, so the officer went ahead and WIRED the money. so now what options do we have if the customer would decide not to mail the check back to us?

Your loan officer is not the sharpest pencil in the pack are they. What real difference did the fact that the officer didn't sign the check make? Was the amount correct and was the transaction legitimate? Also, how is a loan officer signing this cashier's check unless this was someone else's deal??

The amount of the check and transaction were both legitimate. From what I am gathering, the customer got a loan through our bank and the cashier's check was given to payoff the loan the customer had at another bank. I guess at this point we have to hope they are being honest about sending the check back since the wire has already been sent. otherwise, we have no valid reason to return the cashier's check?

Yes, you could return it as it is not properly payable. Either that or someone is going to have forged the signature on the check. But collecting on the check in that case is another issue.

"the cashier's check was given to payoff the loan the customer had at another bank." - Sounds like you need to review your internal controls in this situation. Most banks would never hand a check to a borrower for this purpose.

Unsigned, I don't think it's a cashiers check regardless of what it says across the top...

If it was presented for payment in tangible form you could have had dimwit come down to bookkeeping and sign it rather than send the wire. I would have given the head bookkeeper 5 minutes to draw a crowd first.

Don't let this lender fix anything, ever. Thanks for the chuckle.

Two time-honored sayings come to mind:

1. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

2. You can't fix stupid.