Can anyone share with me a form that they use to record the customer's signature when customers pick up their statements "Held At Bank". We are in the process of redesigning a log that is serving as that purpose, but now want to use individual cards per each customer statement "Held At Bank". Any ideas would be helpful.

Thank you.

I agree. We still have a couple of small branches that hold statements for customer pick-up, and it is a pain. With error resolution timelines, particularly with EFT items, holding statements seems like an unnessecary risk to me.

Our bank is also looking for this type of form and I would also be interested in what other's forms look like. Thanks.

We strongly discourage this practice but do have procedures for just in case. I will be glad to fax them to you if you give me your fax number.

After we encountered a large defaulcation related to held mail, we discontinued the practice.

We do not hold statements at all - especially in light of USA Patriot Act and the importance of having proper addresses - all statements should be able to be mailed to a valid address.

If you do hold statements, you need tight procedures like dual control and sending them if not picked up within x months.

I worked at a bank where a very large employee fraud was perpetrated - held statements helped create the holes that allowed the fraud to occur. The employee went to jail and procedures were changed.

Kaybee, could you expand on what proecedures are now in place and how the fraud was discovered?

I dont think statements should be held at the bank either...but just to play devil's advocate - what if say the bank wants a statement held for a customer because the cost of mailing that statement on a monthly basis (due to the bank returning cancelled checks, and they exceed 500++) is HUGE. What are others thoughts on this if good controls are in place?

While holding customer statements does expose the bank to risk, there are controls that can mitigate that risk such as maintaining statements under dual control; having held statement agreements, which specify that the statement will be mailed if not picked up within a certain timeframe and also specifies what will happen to other timely sensitive information, such as NSF items, 1099s, etc.; having the customer sign for pickup; documenting the identification verification process each time the statement is picked up; etc. So, if you have to hold customer statements, there are mitigating controls.

Yes, there are mitigating controls possible, but the single point of failure is to rely on the person initially handling the branch mail to not be dishonest.

One good control not already mentioned is to have change of address notices centrally and independently sent to both the new and the old addresses. This way if someone tries to get away with something by having the address changed to the bank's address, the depositor will see the change.

With regards to sending out 500++ checks per month, your service charge schedule should be able to recover that cost in fees you'd assess to that high volume depositor.