We have branches in Florida, Georgia & Alabama. We image all originals of our deposit documentation, i.e. signature cards, agreements, etc. We would like to start destroying the original paper documents 60 days after they are imaged. Does anyone currently do this? Does any one retain just certain documents, like the signature card only?
Thanks for you feed back.

Each of the states where you operate should have its own record retention requirements plus a state statute or court ruling on whether images of documents are acceptable as evidence. Their requirements may not be the same.

These were the laws the last time I looked it up. You may wish to see if they are still in effect:

Alabama Law:
Section 5-4A-1
Certain records to be retained; disposition of records after retention for prescribed period; reproduction of records and books.
(a) Every bank shall retain its business records for such periods as may be prescribed by regulation adopted pursuant to Section 5-2A-9.
(b) Any bank may dispose of any records which have been retained for the period prescribed by the superintendent.
(c) Any bank may cause any or all books and records at any time in its custody and books and records relating to trusts, estates and other fiduciary accounts, to be reproduced by photostatic, photographic, or microphotographic process, or by any other generally recognized reproduction process, and reproduction so made, whether enlarged or not, shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof and be admitted in evidence equally with the original.


Florida

655.91 Records of institutions and copies thereof; retention and destruction.-- (1) In this section, "records" of an institution means and includes all books of account and other books of every kind, journals, ledgers, statements, instruments, documents, files, messages, writings of every kind, and other internal or other data and other information of every description, made or received by an institution in the regular course of its business or otherwise, regardless of the mode in which it is recorded. (2) Institutions need not preserve or retain any of their records or copies thereof for a period longer than is expressly required by an applicable statute or rule or regulation of this state or the United States which identifies, either specifically or by type or category, the relevant records or copies thereof or, if there is no such statute or rule or regulation which specifies a retention period applicable to the records or copies thereof, for a period longer than 5 years. An institution may destroy any of its records or copies thereof after the expiration of the retention period determined as provided in this subsection. (3) No liability shall accrue against any institution because of the destruction of any of its records or copies thereof as permitted by subsection (2), and in any judicial or other action or proceeding in which any such records or copies thereof may be called in question or be demanded of the institution or any officer or employee thereof, a showing that such records or copies thereof have been destroyed in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) is a sufficient excuse for the failure to produce them. (4) Any institution may at any time make, or cause to be made, a copy or copies of any or all of its records, and any such copy duly certified, authenticated, or identified by a responsible officer or agent of the institution under whose supervision the records or copies are kept shall, in all cases and in all courts and places, be admitted and received as evidence with a like force and effect as the original record, whether or not the original is in existence. (5) The original of any record of an institution includes the data or other information comprising a record stored or transmitted in or by means of any electronic, computerized, mechanized, or other information storage or retrieval or transmission system or device which can upon request generate, regenerate, or transmit the precise data or other information comprising the record; and an original also includes the visible data or other information so generated, regenerated, or transmitted if it is legible or can be made legible by enlargement or other process. (6) Copies of records of an institution, heretofore or hereafter made, include duplicates or counterparts of an original produced from the same impression or process as the original by carbon or other chemical or substance or process; negative and positive film and prints of an original or copy and reproductions and facsimiles of an original or copy, whether or not the same size, produced by photographic, microphotographic, photostatic, xerographic, electronic, computerized, or mechanized process, or by any other process, and enlargements and reductions thereof; and the data or other information comprising a record stored or transmitted as provided in subsection (5), and the visible data or other information generated or regenerated or transmitted by such information storage or retrieval or transmission system or device, if it is legible or can be made legible by enlargement or other process. History.--s. 57, ch. 92-303.

Georgia Law:
10-12-4. (a) Records and signatures shall not be denied legal effect or validity solely on the grounds that they are electronic. (b) In any legal proceeding, an electronic record or electronic signature shall not be inadmissible as evidence solely on the basis that it is electronic. (c) When a rule of law requires a writing, an electronic record satisfies that rule of law. (d) When a rule of law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies that rule of law. (e) When a rule of law requires an original record or signature, an electronic record or electronic signature shall satisfy such rule of law. (f) Nothing in this Code section shall prevent a party from contesting an electronic record or signature on the basis of fraud. (g) Nothing in this Code section shall relieve any party to a legal proceeding from complying with applicable rules of evidence requiring authentication or identification of a record or signature as a condition precedent to its admission into evidence. (h) Where the authenticity or the integrity of an electronic record or signature is challenged in a court of law, the proponent of the electronic record or signature shall have the burden of proving that the electronic record or signature is authentic. (i) Notwithstanding the preceding subsections of this Code section, the legal validity, effect, and admissibility of electronic records and electronic signatures shall be limited as follows: (1) Each department, agency, authority, or instrumentality of the state or its political subdivisions shall determine how and the extent to which it will create, send, receive, store, recognize, accept, be bound by, or otherwise use electronic records or electronic signatures. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require any department, agency, authority, or instrumentality of the state or its political subdivisions to create, send, receive, store, recognize, accept, be bound by, or otherwise use electronic records or electronic signatures; (2) A consumer shall not be required to create, send, receive, recognize, accept, be bound by, or otherwise use electronic records or electronic signatures without such consumer's consent. This paragraph shall apply to natural persons when engaged in transactions involving money, property, or services primarily used for household purposes; and (3) The provisions of this Code section shall not apply to any rule of law governing the creation or execution of a will or testamentary or donative trust, living will, or health care power of attorney, or to any record that serves as a unique and transferable physical token of rights and obligations, including, without limitation, negotiable instruments and instruments of title wherein possession of the instrument is deemed to confer title. (j) Any rule of law which requires a notary shall be deemed satisfied by the secure electronic signature of such notary. (k) Even when a statute, regulation, or other rule of law specifies a particular type of record other than an electronic record or a particular type of signature other than an electronic signature, this chapter shall control to permit the use of electronic records and electronic signatures in the circumstances otherwise governed by such statute, regulation, or other rule of law, unless such statute, regulation, or other rule of law expressly refers to and limits the application of this chapter.