IBA Compliance Connection

Your go to source for compliance!

One of our branches opened a checking account last year in the names of both a wife and her husband, but only the wife signed an account agreement and a signature card. Still, the husband was issued a debit card and used the account, and statements were going out to both of them with his name listed first. Now the couple is getting a divorce, and the wife has asked the bank to remove his name from the account. Meanwhile, the husband is asking the bank for a listing of his accounts and a transaction history for each account. Does he have the legal right to access information on this checking account even though he never signed an account agreement or a signature card?

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No. Illinois courts have consistently held that a joint deposit account is only created by the parties signing an explicit agreement to create a joint account. If both parties have not signed a joint account agreement or a signature card that creates a joint account, then the spouse who did not sign the account agreement or signature card is not a joint account holder. The Illinois Joint Tenancy Act also states that all parties to a joint account must sign the account agreement, either when the account is opened or sometime thereafter.