Our bank has a lot of Chinese customers with Chinese names and English names (being one of the same)the DDA account is opened using the english name. If the customer signs their check using the Chinese name (and we have employees that read Chinese) can the check be cashed or do we require them to "aka" using the english name as well?

Thank you

How can you compare the check to the sig card if they use different names/languages. I would believe there is one way to do this. If you allow English and another language, you have increased your workload and liability. It should be cost effective for you to do this, otherwise, I wouldn't.

I'd like to mention, as one of those people who compares signatures all day, that I am NOT comfortable when I have to compare a signature written in characters I cannot read, no matter how neatly written. The reason? I'm afraid that when I say, "Yes, that's a match," I'm really only detecting the similarities that would happen if ANY person who customarily writes in that language wrote the same characters. I'm simply not familiar enough to detect little variations reliably the way I can with the Roman alphabet. It's a risk.

Just remember that an individual's signature is what he or she says it is. There is absolutely no requirement that a signature be legible or that it conform to someone else's concept of how it should be written. While I appreciate the difficulty in checking signatures, particularly those that don't "spell" the way the account name reads, I would be greatly insulted if someone told me that I couldn't sign my name any way I wished. A signature is merely a graphical representation of a name that is adopted by someone with the goal of authenticating writings.

As a measure of precaution, you may want to consider having the customer sign the signature card in the various languages or styles the customer elects. At some point you have to balance authentication risks versus customer service risks.

If they sign the signature card in letters and the check in characters I would return it, you must sign your checks the way you sign you signature card.

Unless someone could provide a cite, I would borrow from Reg. B here where it says the customer can choose the name they'll use with you, but it must be used consistently.

Just as we restricted customers from using dual signatures, I would hold them to one type here, unless they were paying some additional fee for your verification process. Still, I think it is more work than it is worth. But that is a personal perspective.