Revised April 2007

Cheques presented for cash or deposit to your account may not always be cashed right away. We may place a hold on funds to ensure that the financial institution on which the cheque is drawn will not return the cheque.  A hold, however, provides no guarantee that a cheque will not be returned as invalid or otherwise after the hold period has expired. Ultimately, you are responsible to us for any cheque that you deposit that is returned to us, regardless of whether any hold period has expired.

If you deposit a cheque to your account which is encoded with magnetic ink character recognition and not damaged or mutilated, the maximum hold period that we will place on that cheque is as follows*:

• Cheques drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada
  • Canadian dollar cheques, maximum hold period of 7 business days
  • US dollar cheques, maximum hold period of 10 business days
• Cheques drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in the United States, maximum hold period of 20 business days
  
• Cheques drawn on a financial institution’s branch located outside of Canada or the United States, maximum hold period of 30 business days

The hold period will begin on the first business day we enter the cheque into the clearing system.  We may extend the maximum hold period if we have reasonable grounds to believe there may be illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to an account.

The length of time you have dealt with your branch, the amount of funds already in your account, and the amount and characteristics of the cheque being deposited may all influence whether the funds will be held.

For immediate access to the proceeds of a deposited cheque (up to a pre-authorized limit), please contact your branch about our CashBack feature, which can be set up on your ScotiaCard banking card.

Electronic and telephone transfers received for deposit to your account are subject to our verification of source of funds. A hold may be placed on any such transferred funds until we complete the verification.

*Please note that some cheques may be sent on “collection”, meaning that the funds will be credited to your account only if and when the cheque clears the other financial institution and the funds have been received by Scotiabank.