I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the correct place or not, so please let me know if this should be asked elsewhere. Our bank will be celebrating our 60 year anniversary in a couple of months. Our eleven branches will be giving away prizes from a drawing to anyone who comes into the bank. Our Mortgage department would like to get in on the action and put their customers names and realtors name in for a drawing. By putting the realtors names in the drawing is this considered a kickback for referrals from these realtors? Thanks for any guidance.

The drawing is open to anyone who comes into the bank and has nothing to do with the referral of a settlement service, so I would not believe there would be a problem. Realtors should be allowed to place their own names in the drawing box when they visit the bank just like any other customer of the bank, whether or not they have ever brought or intend to bring an applicant into the mortgage area.

In my opinion, people in the mortgage department should not be allowed to place the names of realtors in the drawing. The realtors should place their own names in the drawing.

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In my opinion, people in the mortgage department should not be allowed to place the names of Realtors in the drawing. The Realtors should place their own names in the drawing.

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I second that opinion, nor should they be allowed to enter their customer's names. They too should enter their own names.

Thanks for the information; where in the regs can I read about these types of "drawings"? I know I have read about them in the past but I want to obtain more information so I can share with Sr. Mgmt. Also, Sr. Mgmt was wanting to only let depositors in on the drawing by putting a blank deposit ticket in the bucket. I told them I didn't think this was permissable. Also I think the mortgage department was going to put their customers names in and all of their realtor names in as a lot of their work is done via phone, computer, fax, etc. and not in person. Thanks again for any guidance.

If you restrict to customers only, they pay you fees. This puts your program within the definition of a lottery. Search on that term for more results.

If your staff enters the names, then you have really restricted the base of potential winners. State laws may prohibit this.

Thanks for the information Andy, also can we restrict the drawings to persons over the age of 18 and can we prohibit employees of the bank from entering the drawing?

I think you'd have to disqualify employees and immediate family members. You should be able to restrict entrants to be of legal age. These would be governed by your state laws on drawing I believe. These are not lottery issues.