Lockbox Banking

A service provided by banks to companies for the receipt of payment from customers. Under the service, the payments made by customers are directed to a special post office box, rather than going to the company. The bank will then go to the box, retrieve the payments, process them and deposit the funds directly into the company bank account.

As with most payment processing services, there are both pros and cons to lockbox banking.

As benefits go, lockbox banking provides companies with a very efficient way of depositing customer payments. This is especially beneficial if a company is unable to deposit checks on a timely basis and/or if it is constantly receiving customer payments through the mail.

On the other hand, lockbox banking can also be very risky. Bank employees who have access to lockboxes are rarely supervised, which opens the situation up to possible fraud. The fraud primarily occurs in the form of check counterfeiting because the checks that are in the lockboxes provide all the information needed to make counterfeit checks. Companies can protect themselves from such fraud by using a bank that they trust and by constantly monitoring their lockboxes.