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When Does "Finders Keepers" Apply?

Answered by: 
John Burnett

Question: 
If a consumer has received a large electronic deposit (over 10K) into her personal checking account incorrectly, how soon must she be informed in order to reclaim the funds? In this case, the account holder received a direct deposit from a company she has no affiliation with which was intended for deposit to another business, but somehow ended up in her account. How soon must she be notified before all parties must give up claim to that deposit - is she entitled to this money at any point. What law, regulation, or terms govern this?
Answer: 

The answer here will depend very much upon state law, and not necessarily the UCC. Some states have separate laws on payments made in error and unjust enrichment.

I hasten to add that the same rules that require a customer to call banks' errors to the banks' attention when the errors are adverse to the customer require that customers contact the bank when the customer's account has too much money in it.

First published on BankersOnline.com 8/29/05

First published on 08/29/2005

Filed under: 
Operations
Filed under operations as: 
Direct Deposit
IT
UCC

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