[maui_hawaii]

Any item can be denied.

A bank can refuse to cash a check merely because the customer is rude or improperly dressed and there is nothing that customer can do about it. I have even heard of customers being carted off the property for cursing at bank employees, courtesy of the sherriff.

The FDIC controls overall lending and bank regulatory matters, not things like customer service, or which items are or are not paid. There is no obligation to cash checks.

If a bank said they won't lend money to hispanics or if they were involved in predatory lending or some other threat to the financial foundation... then the FDIC can step in. If the banks falsely advertise their interest rates or whatnot...

The only thing that even comes remotely close is the Expedited Funds Availability Act and that does not in any way concern a check casher.

The Expedited Funds Availability Act requires all banks, savings and loan associations, savings banks, and credit unions to make funds deposited into checking, share draft and NOW accounts available according to specified time schedules and to disclose their funds availability policies to their customers. The law does not require an institution to delay the customer's use of deposited funds but instead limits how long any delay may last. The regulation also establishes rules designed to speed the return of unpaid checks.

Go here for a more complete list of what they govern.

[Nik Naym]

There is another angle here: the poster is talking about a PAYCHECK. Depending on the state laws, there may be someone breaking the law here, but not necessarily the bank. Or maybe the bank.

In at least one state, at least long ago when I had to worry about such things, NY state has a law about paychecks. (Or did)

An employer must pay an employee in CASH, or a check that is readily converted to cash. In other words, if the employee is paid with a check and the bank it is drawn on refuses to cash it to the employee at face value, the employer is in deep shnit. They could potentially find themselves being required to pay employees in CASH.

IANAL. I could be full of crap now, as times do change.

However it seems absurd that a bank charges the payee to cash a check drawn on that bank. The way I see it, if a bank has a policy of not cashing checks DRAWN ON THAT BANK, then the banks checks are of questionable value and ergo: the bank is of questionable value. I agree with what another post here said...use a credit union.