83. Clearing House Balances

Another important duty of the paying teller in a city bank with a clearing house, is to receive from or pay to the clearing house, the amount of the bank's credit or debit as a result of the exchanges. The mode of procedure varies in different cities. Clearing house debits in New York must be paid in between twelve-thirty and one-thirty p. m., and must be in clearing house certificates or other large gold or legal tender certificates. The bills are put into envelopes of large denominations and sealed securely. If the balance is large he will have to call upon the officer having charge of the large bills for sufficient money to make up the balance. A careful teller will record the number of all five and ten thousand dollar certificates passing through his hands. If the balance is a credit one, he should see that it is sent for shortly after one-thirty, and that the large bills are promptly turned over to the proper officer.

The paying teller or his assistant should pass on the signature of all checks paid, whether over the window or through the exchanges. This duty should under no circumstances be given to any other department or clerk. The paying teller understands the loss a forgery may cause better than any other man in the bank, and he should be responsible for the signature of every check paid.

84. Stop Payment Notices

In some banks, the book-keeper is held responsible for stop payment notices given by customers, in others the paying teller, and in still others the responsibility is divided between them. In this, as in all other duties, the responsibility should not be divided. Let either one be charged with refusing all checks on which stop payment notices have been received, and hold him definitely responsible. The paying teller is the man on whom this duty should fall. He is in the habit of cashing checks, without referring them to the bookkeeper, when he knows the account is good, and in so paying he might very easily cash one that he should not have honored. The records that he will have to keep depend largely on the class of depositors.

The depositor should issue his instructions to stop payment in writing and preferably on the bank's own printed form. See Figure 55 on page 127.

The same, or greater caution should be exercised before allowing a customer to issue duplicates of lost checks. Duplicates should be refused unless advice has been received of their issuance. A very good form of advice in regard to issuing duplicate checks is shown in Figure 56 on page 128.

The memorandum of stop payment notices is often a very carelessly prepared document and more carelessly cared for. The writer has seen such records made up on a piece of common scratch paper and stuck on a spindle in the paying teller's department or pasted on the wall near the teller's window. The "Dinah" of the bank may sometime take a notion to "have a clarin' up day," and then these scratch memoranda, whether important or not, are liable to be lost or destroyed. For a small bank, a stop payment card prepared by The Rand Ledger Company of North Tonawanda, New York, is an excellent record. Slips of cardboard on which are inscribed the details of the check to be stopped are inserted in tin slides. The slides may be kept in alphabetical order and all dead orders removed as soon as the check is caught and returned. Some sort of permanent record should be kept in a bound volume, because if a check is actually destroyed it will never be presented, and yet. as long as the bank is doing business it must be on the lookout for the check on which payment has been stopped. Figure 57 on page 130 shows a good form for this bound record.

Name.............................................................

Address..........................................................

Date...............................................................

To the

Jersey National Bank

New York City

Please stop payment on check No.............................................,............

dated...................................................., for $........................................, in favor of

This check has not been paid as shown by your accounts rendered to date.

Yours respectfully,

Figure 55. Stop Payment Notice.

[Correspondents will please use this form of advice in all cases where Duplicate Drafts are issued. Duplicates will not be paid unless notice of their issue is received. Be careful to examine account rendered to date before issuing. We advise correspondents not to issue Duplicates Too Readily.]

............................................................................Bank,

................................................................19............

To the

Jersey National Bank

New York City

We have this day issued Duplicate of our Draft on you,

No.............................................................dated............................................................

for $....................................................in favor of........................................................

The original of this draft has not been paid as shown by your accounts current rendered to................................................................................................

Yours respectfully,

Figure 56. Notice Of Issuance Of Duplicate Check.

If the check is to be returned through the exchange, it should be prominently marked across the face in red ink "Payment stopped," so that it will be impossible for the check to be put through again. The writer can see no reason why the same method should not be followed when a check is presented at the window, except that an unpleasant discussion is liable to ensue.