No, we are not aware of any Illinois laws requiring notice of a fee increase for a safe deposit box. We also are not aware of any federal laws requiring a bank to provide advance notice when increasing safe deposit box fees. However, we recommend reviewing the terms and conditions of your safe deposit box agreement to determine whether your institution has contractually agreed to provide notice of a fee change to customers.

In any event, we believe it would be prudent to provide some form of advance notice of a fee increase to your safe deposit box customers, even if notice is not required by your agreement, as a courtesy to your customers and to prevent confusion and/or misunderstandings. For your safe deposit box customers who maintain other accounts with the bank, this could be accomplished by announcing the new fee on their other account statements.

As to the fee increase generally, we note that the Illinois Banking Act provides “the establishment of account service charges and the amounts of the charges not otherwise limited or prescribed by law is a business decision to be made by a bank according to prudent business judgment and safe and sound operating standards.”

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

• Illinois Banking Act, 205 ILCS 5/5e(b) (“The establishment of account service charges and the amounts of the charges not otherwise limited or prescribed by law is a business decision to be made by a bank according to prudent business judgment and safe and sound operating standards.”)