We are a multi-branch, independently chartered bank that was recently purchased by a much larger Corp. In the past, our bank automatically blocked only the employees payroll account. We are now being told that ALL accounts that the employee's name appears on MUST be blocked according to the regs. I am wondering what reg? Can anyone cite this for me? I am dealing with alot of confused family members of the employees (i.e. checking account of an elderly parent of an employee with the employee also on the account). The tellers can no longer view any information on their account for them.
Thanks in advance!
Kim

I have heard of no regulation that states that employee accounts are to be denied access at branch locations. I know that some banks opted to do this as a self imposed procedure, but no regulations. We do not block accounts, but we are a small institution with only 3 locations and it is easy to monitor when employee accounts are being accessed.

Kim, I never heard of any regs with regard to this.

We are a smaill institution also (under 100Million) and we don't block employee accounts either, but we do monitor transaction reports for every employee account.

I guess you are blocking out tellers from the accounts, not those who have a legitimate reason for reviewing. I don't know if we could keep our blanket bond if someone didn't analyze employee accounts on a periodic basis. I know of no regulation requiring this. Maybe privacy is being used as a reason to block accounts, but that is a stretch.

Limiting the access to employees accounts is a fraud deterrent, not a regulatory requirement. Regulators are interested in your "managing" of employee accounts. Some banks require employee checking accounts and savings accounts to be housed in administation. Employee accounts are generally coded as "Employee", "Officer", "Director" etc. Some systems allow these accounts to show up on a CIF record with no balance showing, just the account types. Over the years, even that didn't always mean someone couldn't look at an employee account. (we could always view the statements on fiche) I believe it is a little extreme to include accounts that are with extended family members, although fraud could still happen. More important I would think is the employee account review process. Does internal or external audit periodically review employee account activity? Do policies and procedures explain that employees are not to process transactions on their own account?

My 2 cents

Karen

The only accounts that we block are those in which an employees pay is direct deposited. This is of course to prevent other employees from know how much some else is paid!!

Here is a similar discussion that might give you some additional ideas.