IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

We have a customer who has a “hold mail” request on all of his accounts with our bank. The customer’s accounts are escheatable in 2021. We would normally send him a due diligence letter regarding the accounts, but we are unsure of whether the hold mail request takes precedence over the due diligence obligation, or vice-versa.

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We believe that your institution is required to send notice to account holders concerning any accounts presumed abandoned under the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (Illinois RUUPA), regardless of any agreements you may have with them involving holding mail.

Under the Illinois RUUPA, holders of abandoned property must send notice to the property’s apparent owner to inform them that the property may be transferred to the State Treasurer, unless your bank does not have a valid mailing address for the customer or another exception applies. We do not believe that an agreement with a customer to hold their mail (which may apply to account statements only) would relieve your bank of this notice requirement.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-501(a) (“Subject to subsections (b) and (c), the holder of property presumed abandoned shall send to the apparent owner notice by first-class United States mail that complies with Section 15-502 in a format acceptable to the administrator not more than one year nor less than 60 days before filing the report under Section 15-401 if:

(1) the holder has in its records an address for the apparent owner which the holder’s records do not disclose to be invalid and is sufficient to direct the delivery of first-class United States mail to the apparent owner; and

(2) the value of the property is $50 or more.”)

  • Illinois RUUPA, 765 ILCS 1026/15-501(b) (“If an apparent owner has consented to receive electronic-mail delivery from the holder, the holder shall send the notice described in subsection (a) both by first-class United States mail to the apparent owner’s last-known mailing address and by electronic mail, unless the holder believes that the apparent owner’s electronic-mail address is invalid.”)
  • Illinois RUUPA Administrative Rules, 74 Ill. Adm. Code 760.460(c) (“A holder does not need to send notice by first-class U.S. Mail if any of the following are true:

1) the property is valued at less than $50;

2) the holder does not have in its records an address for the apparent owner that is sufficient for delivery of first-class U.S. Mail;

3) the holder’s records indicate that the address for the apparent owner is invalid

4) the holder sends notice by certified U.S. Mail.”)