Hold Funds Policy

HOLD FUNDS POLICY

(For the purpose of this policy, “cheque” includes negotiable instruments such as certified cheques, bank drafts or money orders and other deposit transfers to your account(s) such as Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT).)

Hold-funds period for cheque deposits

When you deposit a cheque into your Coast Capital personal or business deposit account, you may not be able to access the full amount right away. We may place a hold on some or all of the funds until the cheque is cleared at the financial institution on which it is drawn. This is called a “hold-funds period”. Any funds subject to a hold-funds period will not be available for withdrawal, transfer (EFT or Interac e-Transfer®), or bill payments until the hold is released.

Hold-Funds period

When you deposit a cheque into your Coast Capital personal or business deposit account, we will apply a hold-funds period as follows:

Canadian dollar cheques

• For a Canadian dollar cheque drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada, funds will be held for a maximum of four (4) business days, starting from the business day after you deposit the cheque.

United States dollar cheques

• For a United States dollar cheque drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada, funds will be held for four (4) business days*, starting from the business day after you deposit the cheque , or as otherwise extended by us in our sole discretion.
• For a United States dollar cheque drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in the United States, funds will be held for 15 business days, starting from the business day after you deposit the cheque, or as otherwise extended by us in our sole discretion.
• For a United States dollar cheque drawn on a financial institution’s branch located outside of Canada or the United States, funds will be held for 15 business days, starting from the business day after you deposit the cheque, or as otherwise extended by us in our sole discretion. Cheques must name a United States financial institution as intermediary.

(For the purpose of this policy, “business day” refers to regular weekdays only and excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and statutory holidays.)

Additional rules applicable to personal deposit accounts

For a Canadian dollar cheque drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada and deposited to a Coast Capital personal deposit account, we will make the first $100 of the funds deposited by cheque available to you immediately, subject to the exceptions set out below.  

Refusing to make funds available and extensions to the hold-funds period

For any cheque deposited to a deposit account with Coast Capital, we may refuse to make funds available with respect to that cheque, extend the hold-funds period, or refuse to give you access to the first $100 of the funds deposited, in circumstances including (but not limited to) the following:

• a cheque is not encoded with magnetic ink character recognition;
• a cheque is damaged or mutilated;
• a cheque has been endorsed more than once;
• a cheque is deposited six (6) months or more after it was dated;
• a cheque is not issued in Canadian dollars;
• a cheque is issued from an account at a financial institution outside of Canada and payment from the cheque has not been received by us from the foreign financial institution within the initial hold-funds period; or
• we have reasonable grounds to suspect there may be illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to an account.

Additional rules applicable to business deposit accounts

If you deposit a cheque into a Coast Capital business deposit account, which is held by an eligible enterprise, we may extend the hold-funds period if we have reasonable grounds to believe that there is a material increased credit risk.

(For the purpose of this policy, “eligible enterprise” includes businesses with authorized credit of less than $1 million, fewer than 500 employees, and annual revenues of less than $50 million.)

Factors that can influence the hold-funds period

Additional factors may influence the hold-funds period, including the length of time you have been a member of Coast Capital, the amount of funds currently held in your account, and the amount and characteristics of the cheque being deposited. In some circumstances cheques may be sent to “collection”, which means that the funds will be credited to your account only once the cheque clears the other financial institution and Coast Capital has received the funds.

Your Responsibility

Ultimately, you are responsible for any cheque that you deposit to your Coast Capital deposit account. If a cheque is returned to us for any reason, we will remove the funds from your account, regardless of whether any hold-funds period has expired. Cheques may be returned in circumstances including but not limited to a cheque being drawn on an account with non-sufficient funds (NSF) or on an account that has been closed, or in response to a stop payment request. This may happen even after the hold-funds period on a cheque expires. The placement of a hold, or the release of a hold, does not guarantee that a cheque will not be returned after the hold-funds period has expired.

Should you have any concerns regarding our Hold Funds Policy, please contact our Advice Centre at 1-888-517-7000 or visit one of our branches.

*Coast Capital business members depositing United States dollar cheques drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada using the Corporate Capture bulk deposit service, funds will be held for 15 business days, starting from the business day after you deposit the cheque, or as otherwise extended by us in our sole discretion.