Bulletin: FL000069

Dear Associates:

Many of you have been seeing "official checks" presented by buyers of property as part of their mortgage proceeds or sometimes being used by lenders as mortgage proceeds.

Official checks, technically speaking, are not cashiers checks or tellers checks but appear to be the equivalent of a tellers check especially to the extent that an official check should clear as next day available funds. However, there is a quirk in the law that seems to mandate that an official check will receive this expedited handling only if it is accompanied by a separate deposit slip which designates it as an official check. Accordingly, all deposits of official checks, in order to be drawn against as good funds, should be made by separate slip and that deposit slip should have imprinted on it in a bold hand "Official Check".

A word of caution -- some unscrupulous individuals are having checks printed up which are drawn against an ordinary checking account and in large print having the words "Official Check" imprinted on that document. A check which is drawn against an individual's account or a corporate account is clearly not an official check but is merely a personal check. An official check is a check drawn against a bank. It is a bank check. It is not a personal check.