Is this considered forgery? Customer who is a check casher wants to withdraw $30k cash from her business account, but the branch tells her no because the funds are not collected in her account. She is the only signer. Her husband has his own personal account where he is the only signer and he deposits his paychecks from his employer to his account. The check casher brings a check to the teller that is payable to herself and is drawn on her husband's personal account. The signature is not her husbands and it appears to be her that signed the check. Based on these suspicions, the branch contacts the husband and he gives his consent. I am trying to determine if this would be considered illegal for reporting purposes.

It was approaching illegality if she had not received her husband's approval before attempting it. But once he gave the OK, it was not a problem (but I'd watch that one like a hawk. She could figure she got away with it once so ....).

ETA: This addresses the question of whether the customer broke the law (forged the check). But read on to see comments about whether the bank's actions were smart.

Also, make sure to notate on the back of the check that the husband gave consent. One can never have enough info to cover one's butt.

Calling the customer to verify the signature was smart. Cashing the check knowing that is was not his signature was not smart; the bank should have just said "no."

It just set a precedent against which the bank's future behavior can be evaluated and it "trained" a teller that a signature unseen by the drawer can be ratified with a phone conversation for which there is no record. The better the phone call is documented, the more damning it is.

Agreed

Having responded to my fair share of forgery claims over the years, I would not want my defense to be "We called him on the phone and he said it was OK". These situations have an uncanny way of going bad very quickly.