A limited liability company (LLC) has an account with our bank. The LLC’s manager is authorized by the corporate resolution to transact on the account. The manager has signed a business debit card agreement authorizing our bank to issue a debit card to an employee and outlining the employee’s authority. The employee is not an authorized signer or on the corporate resolution. Should this employee be added to the corporate resolution? Should he sign the business account signature card?

Ideally, the corporate resolution authorizing the LLC manager to establish the account will include language sufficient to authorize the manager to cause the issuance of debit cards to other individuals in the manager’s discretion. We do not think it is necessary to add such individuals to the account’s signature card, absent any provisions to the contrary in your bank’s policies and procedures. The debit card agreement naming the employee should suffice.

Signature cards are designed principally to assist tellers and back office personnel in confirming the signature of an authorized signer on an account, and in this case, the employee receiving the debit card is not an authorized signer on the account. If your bank were to need a copy of the employee’s signature for other purposes (such as monitoring signature-based debit card transactions), it may be prudent to have the employee sign the business debit card agreement. We would not recommend having the employee sign the signature card, unless the card were to clearly limit the employee’s authority to debit card transactions (which, again, we do not believe is necessary, and which could even result in confusion at a later time).