We have a business customer who has an employee that is claiming that multiple payroll checks have been stolen from the mail (presumably by a member of the household) and his endorsement was forged, it was then endorsed by another person and the check was deposited in the other person's account. The person that the checks were payable to also has an account at the bank the checks were deposited into.
We had the payee fill out an affidavit of forged endorsement and sent it to the depositing bank and they have denied the claim saying that the signature on the back of the check looks like the signature they have on file.
Can a bank disregard the affidavit of forged endorsement because the signature on the checks looks like the one they have on file?