Banks and their customers

銀行和顧客

Why is there no risk to the customer when a bank prints the customer's name on his cheques?

When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money, repayment of which he may demand at any time, either in cash or by drawing a cheque in favour of another person. Primarily, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor -- who is which depending on whether the customer's account is in credit or is overdrawn. But, in addition to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer owe a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give in to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is loaded against him.

任何人在銀行開一個(gè)活期賬戶，就等于把錢借給了銀行。這筆錢他可以隨時(shí)提取，提取的方式可以是取現(xiàn)金，也可以是開一張以他人為收款人的支票。銀行與儲(chǔ)戶的關(guān)系主要是債務(wù)人和債權(quán)人的關(guān)系。究竟誰是債務(wù)人誰是債權(quán)人，要看儲(chǔ)戶是有結(jié)余還是透支。除了這一基本的簡(jiǎn)單的概念外，銀行和儲(chǔ)戶彼此還需承擔(dān)大量義務(wù)。其中許多義務(wù)往往引起問題和糾紛。但是儲(chǔ)戶不能像貨物的買主那樣來抱怨法律對(duì)自己不利。

The bank must obey its customer's instructions, and not those of anyone else. When, for example, a customer first opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in respect of cheques draw by himself. He gives the bank specimens of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or authority to pay out a customer's money on a cheques on which its customer's signature has been forged. It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very skilful one: the bank must recognize its customer's signature. For this reason there is no risk to the customer in the practice, adopted by banks, of printing the customer's name on his cheques. If this facilitates forgery, it is the bank which will lose, not the customer.

銀行必須遵照儲(chǔ)戶的囑托辦事，不能聽從其他人的指令。比如，儲(chǔ)戶首次在銀行開戶時(shí)，囑咐銀行他的存款只能憑本世人簽字的支票來提取。他把自己簽名的樣本交給銀行，對(duì)此有一條非常嚴(yán)格的規(guī)定：銀行沒有任何權(quán)利或理由把儲(chǔ)戶的錢讓偽造儲(chǔ)戶的支票取走。即使偽造得很巧妙，也不能付款，因?yàn)殂y行有責(zé)任辨認(rèn)出其儲(chǔ)戶的簽名。因此，某些銀行已采用把儲(chǔ)戶印在支票上的作法。這種做法對(duì)儲(chǔ)戶毫無風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。如果因這種作法出現(xiàn)了偽造的話，受損失的將不是儲(chǔ)戶，而是銀行。