Bank teller

Bowery Savings Bank, 34th St. and 5th Ave., New York City. Tellers at machines

A bank teller is an employee of a bank who deals directly with most customers. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative.^[1] Most teller jobs require experience with handling cash and a high school diploma. Most banks provide on-the-job training.

Tellers are considered a "front line" in the banking business because they are the first people that a customer sees at the bank.

Responsibilities

Being front line staff they are most likely to detect and stop fraudulent transactions in order to prevent losses at a bank (counterfeit currency and checks, identity theft, confidence tricks, etc.). The position also requires tellers to be friendly and interact with the customers, providing them with information about customers' accounts and bank services. Tellers typically work from a station, usually located on a Teller Line. Most stations have a teller system, which includes cash drawers, receipt validator/printers, proof work sorters, and paperwork used for completing bank transactions. These transactions include:

• Check cashing, depositing, transfers, wire transfers
• Savings deposits, withdrawals
• Issuing negotiable items (cashier's checks, traveler's cheques, money orders, federal draft issuances, etc.)
• Payment collecting
• Promotion of the financial institution's products (loans, mortgages, etc.)
• Business referrals (trust, insurance, lending, etc.)
• Cash advances
• Savings bond redemption. Paper savings bonds can no longer be purchased, only electronic bonds are available for purchase now, so banks can no longer issue bonds.
• Resolving customer issues
• Balancing the vault, cash drawers, ATMs, and TAUs
• Batching and Processing Proof Work (On-Us/Not-On-Us Checks, Payment Coupons, Counter Slips, etc.)
• May include ordering products for the customer (checks, deposit slips, etc.)

Prevalence

In the United States, tellers held approximately 608,000 jobs in 2006. Of these, 1 out of 4 worked part-time. Median annual earnings as of May 2006 were $22,140.^[2]

See also

• Automated teller machine (ATM)
• Front office
• Cashier

References