Payments may be made by mere book transfer, by the issu ance of a cashier's check, or by telegraphic transfer. It is the duty of the foreign paying teller to determine how a given trans action shall be handled. He must determine whether payment should be made by check, cable, or book entries, and whether he should wire advice of a debit or credit or simply telephone the payee's New York office, and, if payment is to be made by wire, through what bank it should be handled, or, if by check, whether the check should be sent direct or through another bank, or be held awaiting call of the payee. To decide these and other prob lems the paying teller must surround himself with all available sources of information—telephone service, up-to-date lists of all the bank's depositors, both foreign and domestic, and the most recent bankers' directory, postal guide, city directory, telephone directory, etc., and the cards of special instructions which must be followed in executing certain transactions.
To assist the paying teller some investigators are necessary, as the carrying out of the transactions necessitates a great variety of special investigations. For instance, it may be necessary to check an item on an account to make sure that it has not already been paid, or to determine whether certain funds have been received before a requested payment may be made, etc.
If payments are being made against orders received by cable, the message must bear a test word or be initialed by an officer, and if made against orders received by letter the signatures must be verified. In either event, a hold for the amount is placed against the account to be debited and the original instructions are sent to the bookkeepers to ascertain whether the balance is sufficient. If the balance is insufficient, the bookkeeper states the exact con dition of the account. The paying teller then searches the bank for credits to the account, and in case sufficient funds are not found, the question of allowing the overdraft is referred to the bank officers.
The Foreign Paying Tickets After the signatures are verified and the holds are initialed on the original instructions, these instructions are handed by the paying teller to derks who make out the necessary tickets. The form of these tickets varies somewhat, depend ing on: 1. Whether the transaction is a book transfer of funds from the bank's account with one foreign correspondent to its account with another correspondent.
2. Whether it is a book transfer of funds from one corre spondent's account with the bank to another corre spondent's account.
3. Whether a cashier's check is needed.
4. Whether a client's account in the domestic division is credited.
5. Whether there is one charge ticket but several credit tickets, or vice versa.
6. Whether telegraphic payment is made.
For making payments outside the home city the bank usually imposes a commission charge, a minimum charge of 25 cents, say, for amounts up to $2,000 and one-eighth per mille on larger sums. The clerk making out the tickets notes the amount of commission on the original instructions.
The following disposition is made of the tickets and original instructions: 1. If it is merely a book transfer, debit and credit advices are prepared from the original instructions, and the tickets are signed by an officer.
2. If a cashier's check is to be issued, the tickets and original instructions go to the clerk who prepares the cashier's checks.
3. If a domestic account is credited, the original instructions and tickets and credit advice are referred to an officer for ap proval; the tickets then go to the bookkeepers, the credit advice to the depositor, and the original instructions to the clerk who prepares a debit advice.
4. If the payment is by telegraphic transfer, the tickets, the transfer-of-funds letter in triplicate, and the telegraphic forms are referred to an officer for approval. The tickets are then sent to the bookkeepers, and the letter and the original instructions for the transfer go to the note teller who keeps the original of the letter and returns the other documents. The note teller is next informed of the amount of the telegraphic charges. Tickets charging the telegraphic charges to the bank that applied for the telegraphic transfer are then prepared, as well as the debit advice.
Payments by Cashier's Check Cashier's checks are prepared in conformity with instructions. A convenient method is to fill two stubs for each check: one, showing number, amount, and payee, is left in the stub book; the other, showing also the amount charged, is left attached to the check until it is initialed by the signing officer, who sends it to the auditing department. The auditors check the stub against the book entry and file it. The clerk who draws the check also makes out duplicate receipts. The original instructions, tickets, receipts, and check are sent to an officer who initials the debit tickets, signs the check, and stamps the original instructions to the effect that the check has been issued by him on a certain day. The tickets are sent to the bookkeepers. From the original instructions debit advices are prepared.