Cheque Signatures

[Barmaid]

Does anyone know what checks, if any, are routinely done by a bank when a cheque is presented for payment?

Do they routinely check the signature against the account holder of the signatory? Or would they just pay the cheque and then react if the account holder says "not my signature"?

[ummmm]

It's a bit hit and miss. I used to sign the company cheques in the two signatures of the directors. The one time a cheque was returned was when the director signed it himself :-)

[Peter Pedant]

.

the bank didnt turn a hair when my sig went all shaky when I was in Hospital

however when I reported a cheque book stolen
and they turned up months later as Pyotr Pedanti
the banks didnt make any difficulties abour reimbursement

[FredPuli43]

They must check the signature by some means. I had a cheque returned marked "signature varies", which was not surprising as I was not a signatory to the account at all; I was a new director but hadn't been put on the signatory list.

[aelmpvw]

no checks whatsoever when someone unknown to me cashed a fake cheque for £800, they even got the initials the wrong way round on the signature

[anniebird]

Many years ago I worked for one company in a group and was on the cheque mandate for that company only. Then I was transferred to another company and the Group Financial Director said he would inform the bank and have me transferred to the second mandate. I signed cheques for millions of pounds over about six months before the bank phoned me one day to ask why. They had received a cheque which I had signed and the payee had asked for special clearance so they had compared the signatures with the mandate and found I was not there. It was cleared up quite quickly but obviously there had been no checks until the special clearance so I do not know how long it would have gone on otherwise.

[Peter Pedant]

Freddie you were a special case - as ever
surely they had as directors Albert and Bertie

and then when Freddie the Frog signs the cheque they see not that the signature is different but the name is different.

[dzug2]

For low value cheques they check there IS a signature

For high value cheques they will check it fully

low and high are moveable feasts

[FredPuli43]

I think , PP, that "signature varies" was the Bank's euphemistic jargon to cover a signature which is in the same name as one on the mandate but differs in appearance and a signature which is not in the name of any signatory on the mandate, therefor differing from all signatures on it. And being a director was not, per se, enough to sign as a director. The bank wanted signatures.

[factor-fiction]

I would be surprised if a check is made on anything other than a spot-check basis of a small sample plus some high value ones. I can't see where the bank processing staff would have ready access to a signature, and I don't think they have the resources to check them.
I'm happy to be corrected but I have a lot of experience of large volume admin processing including some cheque processing

[ubasses]

For many years only cheques above a certain level have been checked against the signatures For all smaller amounts the cost of doing the work outweighs the costs of refunding in a case of fraud. Banks now have customers signatures scanned into the computer and all cheques over the limit are looked at, not only for signatures but for other technical errors as well.