Cash Item Lists

Though each of the remittances on points where the bank has a branch is in effect a debit for that branch, entries are economized by listing all items-cheques and bank drafts-received the same day payable at the same point. The total of the list is then the debit entry. When the remittances are all recorded, numbered and listed, the teller passes them out, first entering each item on the debit side of his blotter. On their being entered in the proper books, they are sent away in letters to the points at which they are payable.

Fraud In The Remittances

It has occasionally happened that defalcations occurred in connection with these remittances. Those payable at branch points are simply sent at debit. But the items sent to other banks have to be sent for collection and remittance, being debited in the meantime to a general ledger account. When the payments come back from the correspondents the general ledger account is re-credited with the amounts.

The crooked work has been done in the second stage of the proceedings. In the mail in the mornings will be a number of drafts sent by other banks as payment for remittances, collections, etc. Dishonest clerks having the handling of these, have been known to use the drafts to draw cash for themselves instead of to credit them to the account to which they belong. By keeping track of the items so wrongfully used they have been able, through substituting others from time to time, to carry their frauds through a long time till they amounted to considerable sums.

How To Stop It

This can be effectively stopped by keeping what is called a waste book, or sundry credits book. When the manager opens the mail in the morning he records in this book all the items for which credit entries should go through during the day. Then, when he checks the cash book next morning, he takes the waste book and sees that every item entered there has been duly credited. If any credits are missing, it is an easy matter to trace the items.

Other Receipts Over The Counter

Besides the deposits in current account there are various other receipts coming in over the teller's counter. There are deposits of the savings bank customers, and of deposit receipt holders, purchase money for drafts and transfers, settlements for notes and bills due. In all of them it is necessary to be sure that the cash and other items received are "good," and that for each credit accorded, an equal amount of cash, cash items, or debits, is received.

As the savings bank depositors and those who prefer the more old-fashioned deposit receipts are not as familiar with banking methods as are the regular daily customers of the bank, the teller has to take a little more trouble to explain things to them, and perhaps to write out slips for them. A great many of them are timid, and have an idea that the bank does not much want to be bothered with such small business as theirs. A first-class teller will lay himself out to convince them that the bank values their business, and to make them feel that they are welcome visitors whenever they call to deposit or withdraw.