Quote Originally Posted by Snoopy View Post
SBQ, I would have no problem if Westpac, like the BNZ, put a foreign cheque into escrow for two to three weeks while it was cleared. That is entirely sensible policy on behalf of any bank. The problem is that, with Westpac, this option is simply not available. Instead Westpac is touting the benefits of your foreign cheque deposit being available immediately as cash. It was entirely Westpac's choice to implement this policy. It is nothing that I asked for.

If they are worried that someone might take advantage of their policy and clean out the cash before the cheque is cleared, well, why have the policy to start with? Shooting yourself in the foot is a perfect analogy for this kind of corporate behaviour.

The 'benefit' for Westpac customers now is that overseas cheques cannot be deposited at all, unless Westpac can recover the cost of doing so by charging you for other services in other ways (i.e. you fit the Westpac Cookie Cutter Customer pattern).

SNOOPY
My experience with BNZ is they tell me that a lot of work is done now to clear foreign cheques. In the past before the FMA and CRS came in, it was very straight forward (treated quite similar to NZ domestic cheques). But now the extra work load is significant and not straight forward and to be quite certain, the branch managers view it as a hassle and find it easier to just tell the client that they won't clear the cheque when the banking as a whole does allow to clear foreign cheques. On amounts (I believe) over $5K they have to go through paperwork such as police checks, bank checks to see if the issuing bank is not on the ban list of some dodge practice. All this regulation increases the compliance cost for banks and quite simply as my bank manager has told me, the real losers are the legit customers trying to do business.