I'm just trying to see what other people in my situation would have or should have done, and see where I went wrong.

A couple enters the bank and asks to get a cashier's check for around $30,000. I recognize the guy before as he's somewhat of a regular, although this is the first time I've met the woman. Pleasantries all around as I make good conversation and figure out the story behind the 30k cashier's check. The story checks out, based on what I know about the guy, everything seems fine.

The account has around $30,100 in it. My instincts kick in and I instantly look at the source of the funds to see that it was a cash deposit done on FRIDAY (previous business day). As if she could read my mind, the lady starts telling me that "they wanted to move the money over electronically but were informed that it would take 15 days, and that was too long". I ask them where this $30,000 came from originally: was it moved from another bank account somewhere else? A gift from someone? etc. To my surprise, both the lady and the guy say ".... we don't- I don't... I don't know" in hushed tones. I repeat my question but word it differently, and the guy says "to be honest we don't know how the guy got it". Oh, so someone else deposited the money into their account? This is very interesting, especially because they won't really explain themselves... I inform them that I need to talk to my Branch Manager to verify the cash deposit, because it was a huge deposit made on the business day prior to the check being written out, and there's little to no information being given. They seem put off by this immediately, but I excuse myself anyways.

I go talk to the BM. The BM thinks something is wrong and instructs me to call the other branch and try and figure out who deposited the money. The BM is clearly alarmed, and even though she knows the guy as a semi-regular, tells me she thinks they may be withdrawing the money someone deposited in their account by mistake. She tells me, on second thought, to call the fraud department directly so that they can pull camera footage of Friday's cash deposit in order to confirm who exactly made the deposit

I go back and talk to the clients and explain I have to go make a phone call to verify a couple of things before I can write the cashier's check. At this point they are irate. "It's my money, what's the big deal?" I tell them I just need to call a back office department, do some verification, and that we can write the cashier's check after that. "Who exactly are you calling?". I tell them the branch needs to "do it's due diligence" without being too specific (I don't want to say, oh, I need to call the FRAUD department because we suspect you might be deFRAUDing us lol). "It's not like we're going to deny your check, we just need to follow our procedures considering these extenuating circumstances" I say, trying to be friendly. Then the clients blow up: "How DARE you insinuate that you could deny me my funds? They are MY funds!". I go talk to the BM and we both agree that I'm to call Fraud while my BM tries to calm them down.

I get myself into an office and I'm about to dial Fraud when my BM comes in and says "oh, it's OK. He was the one who made the deposit". I confirm with her that we're OK to just take his word and proceed, and she says "uhh yeah everything's fine, he's the one who made the deposit".

So I go back over there and thank both of them for their patience, but at this point the lack of a unified front on behalf of my BM and I has made them extremely angry. I hear them talking in Spanish and they want to close down all their accounts and pull all their money and loans out of our FI. They won't look me in the eye and they're scowling at me extremely hard. It's also worth noting that the BM is latina as well and I believe she approached them by talking to them in Spanish.

The wife asks me if the problem had to do with her ID. In a tired and empathetic voice, I say "oh no, no, not at all. Your ID was fine. It just had to do with the very recent cash deposit. Ultimately, the BM makes the call on whether we have to do additional due diligence before we proceed with a transaction. It looks like she came over and spoke with you guys and was OK to continue after that". However, I could definitely tell that they felt like I was purposefully giving them a hard time and the manager "put me in line". My attempts at explaining the situation fell through and I could tell they felt discriminated against and they certainly did not leave on a positive note which felt disheartening.

So, my question to you guys is: what would you have done differently? How would you have handled it with the clients? Would you have been more or less forthcoming with the information?