Is it ok to accept an email or telephone call from an employee that they want to change the account they have their payroll deposited into in order to make those changes or is it required that they complete a new direct deposit agreement form?

we would not make that change without something in writing. too much fraud via email and phone these days.

What Happy said. I dealt with a situation where an HR employee got an email they thought was from the employee's home email asking to change direct deposit. The employee was out that day so it kind of made sense and the HR person forgot to follow up with the employee in person before the next payday . . . when the employee said "where is my direct deposit?"

It might be tempting to treat an employee's email or phone request differently because, well, they're an employee. But, It's too easy to "spoof" Caller ID and sending email addresses, and in a big bank with lots of branches, you may not know your employees all that well. So, for the reasons listed above, it's smarter to apply the same security measures you use when the request is from "just a customer." Your employee may be slightly inconvenienced (nowhere near as inconvenienced as they would be if the email or call turns out to be a scam), but they should be glad for the security measure.