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.

 

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.

 

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

 

銀行必須遵照儲戶的囑托辦事，不能聽從其他人的指令。比如，儲戶首次在銀行開戶時，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，對此有一條非常嚴格的規定：銀行沒有任何權利或理由把儲戶的錢讓偽造儲戶的支票取走。即使偽造得很巧妙，也不能付款，因為銀行有責任辨認出其儲戶的簽名。因此，某些銀行已采用把儲戶印在支票上的作法。這種做法對儲戶毫無風險。如果因這種作法出現了偽造的話，受損失的將不是儲戶，而是銀行。