Topic: Record Retention
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When is it permissible to backdate loan documentation? Are you aware of any potential repercussions when backdating loan documentation of a renewal that occurs after the original loan has matured? Alternatively, are there any repercussions for not backdating loan documentation, resulting in a gap between the maturity date and the renewal date? Are there contract considerations for either?
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Under Illinois law, it is permissible to backdate an agreement — in other words, to use an effective date for an agreement that predates (or postdates) its signing date — provided that the parties’ intention to do this is “clear from the face of the contract.” When renewing a matured loan, you may select an…
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Are there any Illinois State laws regarding original check retention? Can we image a check and destroy the original as soon as we know we have a clear electronic image? I am not aware of any federal regulations requiring retention of an original check and I want to make sure Illinois law is the same.
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Disclaimer: The Electronic Commerce Security Act (ECSA) was repealed and replaced with the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), effective June 25, 2021. Please note that this change may affect the continued accuracy of this guidance as it pertains to the ECSA. No, we are not aware of any required retention periods for original checks in…
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What is the record retention time for personal or business tax returns? We collect these documents for loan underwriting purposes.
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We are not aware of a specific record retention requirement that would apply to tax returns collected by the bank as part of its underwriting processes. Whether you retain them and the duration of their retention are business decisions. As an example of a best practice, the IBA Record Retention Manual recommends retaining information collected…
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We know that federal law requires us to retain Call Reports for five years. Our FDIC examiners told us to also check state law. Does Illinois law have a record retention period for Call Reports?
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No, we are not aware of any Illinois laws that specify a record retention period for Call Reports. While the Illinois Banking Act mandates the Commissioner of Banks to promulgate record retention rules, no such rules have been published. Consequently, we recommend following the FFIEC’s requirement to maintain Call Reports for five years after the…
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Are there specific record retention requirements that apply to original homeowner insurance policies, annual escrow analyses, and mortgage releases for residential mortgage loans? We currently retain electronic copies of these documents for seven years and shred the paper copies after one year. We keep original copies of notes. Is that an acceptable practice?
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Disclaimer: The Electronic Commerce Security Act (ECSA) was repealed and replaced with the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), effective June 25, 2021. Please note that this change may affect the continued accuracy of this guidance as it pertains to the ECSA. No, we are not aware of specific record retention requirements for original homeowner insurance…
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We currently scan trust documents and death certificates and retain the scanned documents electronically. Do we need to maintain the physical documents after scanning them?
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Disclaimer: The Electronic Commerce Security Act (ECSA) was repealed and replaced with the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), effective June 25, 2021. Please note that this change may affect the continued accuracy of this guidance as it pertains to the ECSA. We believe that your bank should retain original trust instruments and their codicils and amendments…
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Is there a record retention period for envelopes used to make deposits in the night drop box? Or can we shred them after we log the deposit? We do not log information about deposits on the envelopes themselves and retain a separate log.
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We do not believe that your bank needs to retain the night drop deposit envelopes, given that the envelopes themselves contain no information. We are unaware of any record retention requirements for night deposit envelopes. The general recommendation in the IBA’s Record Retention Manual, last revised in 2014, suggests a retention period of six months,…
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Is there a retention period for bank policies that have been approved by our board and signed by an officer?
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Disclaimer: The Electronic Commerce Security Act (ECSA) was repealed and replaced with the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), effective June 25, 2021. Please note that this change may affect the continued accuracy of this guidance as it pertains to the ECSA. We are not aware of any mandatory retention period for original drafts of board-approved bank…
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How long should our bank retain closed trust files in our trust department, which include trust instruments and attendant documents, such as transaction listings, paid checks, and bills? We currently retain hard copies of all of these documents.
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Disclaimer: The Electronic Commerce Security Act (ECSA) was repealed and replaced with the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), effective June 25, 2021. Please note that this change may affect the continued accuracy of this guidance as it pertains to the ECSA. We believe that your bank should retain original trust instruments and their codicils and amendments…
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What are the record retention requirements for our bank’s internal records of loan account and deposit account transactions? For loans, we have the loan agreements and account statements, but our internal transaction records are harder to track down.
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Regarding your internal records for deposit account transactions, FinCEN and the NACHA rules impose record retention requirements for certain transactional records. If the FinCEN or NACHA retention periods do not apply, the record retention period for these documents would be a business decision for your bank as embodied in your document retention policy. FinCEN imposes…