Two of our branches were recently presented with blood-stained currency to exchange for "clean" bills. Although we do have gloves and cleaner available, I am still concerned about exposing our staff to serious bio hazards (I know that money is very dirty anyway). Do we have to accept this currency?

This is one time I think I would call the local police. (1) to let them know about the blood stains, [Do you know where the blood stains came from?] and (2) maybe they can tell you the best way to handle the currency.

Why would you have to accept it? I can't think of any reason. You didn't say how much it was but an exchange of currency over $10,000 is also reportable. Bet that would stop them

I'd call the police before accepting. It may be evidence of a crime.

Also, customer or non-customer? Our branch employees can't seem to grasp that they don't have to do exchanges for non-customers. We keep getting hit with short-change artists. (Surprisingly, I guess there are still a few of those around.)

One teller said "I thought I could keep up with him".

Guess what, he didn't!

Several years ago, we had the police bring us a large amount of currency that was recovered from a ....uh..... body cavity search . They provided the teller with gloves and protective gear. I think that the cash was sent in to the fed as we would with damaged currency, such as burned or uncountable currency. I personally would not ask any of our tellers to count that money or the blood stained money that the original poster described. Tellers are not compensated well enough to be asked to do that.

To answer some of your questions. There were two different individuals, both customers. One explained that he was the victim of a shooting (becoming common in our small city), the other was not asked about the stains. The amounts were small both times - less than $100. Calling local law enforcement didn't seem warranted. I was just worried that there was some obscure requirement that as a financial institution we had to accept currency. I want to be able to state that our tellers do not have to accept this money without fear of litigation.

What if the money was not bloody, but taken out of someone's shoe and all sweaty and gross? Do we have to accept that?

Many years ago--back when dinosaurs still roamed the parking lots--a 19 year old teller, working in a stand alone booth outside, called me to ask if she had to accept some cash for a deposit. When I questioned her about the cash, she said the customer was a very very very large woman who pulled the currency from deep inside her bra. To make it worse, the temperature was around 100, she had no air conditioning and was "glowing" profusely.

She had already accepted the deposit and had spread it out to dry in her booth. She was asking for future reference.