Wire Transfer Form

My bank does not require the customer requesting a wire transfer to sign the wire transfer form. The argument is...the customer signs the deposit withdrawal slip and that is sufficient. I do not agree with this.

What are the practices at your banks?? Is obtaining the customer signature on the wire transfer form a best practice? By not obtaining the customer signature are we open to some legal ramifications?

We require a signature on the wire transfer request form. The signature confirms that all of the information on the form is accurate and that we have their authorization to send the wire and charge any applicable fees.

If they don't sign the request, how do you prove that they authorized the transfer?

Agree with Doug, but would change his answer slightly since you have the customer's signature on the withdrawal form. I would say "if they don't sign the request, how do you prove that they authorized the transfer approved the recipient's name/account/bank?"

Ditto Milby. I always made sure to point out to the member/customer that by them signing the wire form they were agreeing that the information on the form was correct.

I would be hard pressed to say legal ramification. How do you obtain a signature on a wire request called in or initiated through online banking.

Online banking is slightly different, as they have entered the information and I would hope you've already got an agreement that they are liable for the information entered.

If it's called in, we require a signature on the form, which can be obtained via fax or e-mail.

We do have a few select clients for which we'll accept the information via e-mail and verification of ID via phone call.

If it's called in, we require a signature on the form, which can be obtained via fax or e-mail.

We do have a few select clients for which we'll accept the information via e-mail and verification of ID via phone call.


Along with I surely hope with an pre-signed agreement outline the commercial reasonable security procedures that have been agreed upon. Otherwise all your action will be meaningless in a court of law.

Yes, we do have a an agreement which is acknowledged before hand with appropriate language. I should have included above that we have that.

wire request in person - signature of customer required

wire request via phone to wire department - funds agreement on file and customer has user ID/PIN to initiate

wire via online banking - multifactor authentication in place

wire by fax - never

wire by phone to banker - authentication in place including call back to customer at phone number of record (not 100% safe but lose this arguement with LOB annually)

wire by email - never