On June 8, 1998, Mercantile bank of KS and MO implemented the “Thumbprint Signature” policy in an effort to reduce payroll check fraud, and in doing so, implemented a policy of both age and wage discrimination. To cash a check, an individual is now required to produce a drivers license or state ID and apply a thumbprint to the check as a means of identification.  If the payee doesn’t wish to give up his/her 4^th Amendment right to protections against unreasonable searches and siezures and produce the thumbprint, he/she is left with two alternatives: open an account at Mercantile or deposit the check into an account at another bank.  But how is this discriminatory?

 

First lets address the issue of wage discrimination.  The program requires that you have an account, either at Mercantile or another bank, to be able to collect on any check written on a Mercantile account.  There is a definite cost associated with maintaining a bank account, both in the minimum balance requirement and in monthly service charges.  If the payee chooses not to bank at Mercantile, there is an additional cost in the form of a 5-10 business day wait while the funds are transferred from Mercantile to the other account.  I feel that this requirement discriminates against those who can’t afford the costs of maintaining a bank account. 

 

Next the issue of age.  What if you're asked to thumbprint the check and another non‑account holder isn't? They can't possibly do that, can they?  But this is something that has already happened. To me. June 8, 1998. I attempted to cash a payroll check issued by Personal Computer Center, of Lenexa, KS, and was told by the teller that the bank would not honor it without my thumbprint on the signature side of the check. The teller also stated that: "Account holders were notified in their April statements," and that "No one can waive the policy, even the account holder." The manager of Personal Computer Center, Michael Jennings, who is not an account holder at Mercantile, wasn't required to thumbprint a check, and it was cashed at a Mercantile bank location. When asked for comment, Mr. Jennings explained that "it was an age thing, because I'm older, I just looked more trustworthy," and therefore didn't have to thumbprint the check.

 

As an after thought, what if you're allergic to the ink, or catch a communicable disease as a result of being required to touch the ink pad? Does the fact that a non‑account holder is exposed to these risks when customers aren't, expose the bank to liability issues?  "Don't touch that! You don't know where it's been!" my parents used to say.  “We were a little worried about offending people at first," said Mike Swanson, senior vice president of the Peoples Bank in Mazomanie, WI,  "but then we realized these people aren't our customers anyway."