Counterfeit official checks drawn on City National Bank, Beverly Hills, California, are reportedly in circulation

City National Bank, Beverly Hills, California, has contacted the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to report that counterfeit official checks bearing the institution's name are in circulation.

The counterfeit items display a proper routing number of 122016066 for City National Bank; however, authentic official checks are payable through Wells Fargo Bank, Ltd., Los Angeles, California. The fraudulent items are markedly dissimilar to authentic bank checks. The layout, style and fonts are different. The counterfeit items use the term "CASHIER'S CHECK," which is located in the bottom-left portion of the check; City National Bank checks use the term "OFFICIAL CHECK," which is located at the top of the check. A copy of a counterfeit item and a copy of an authentic official check (VOID) are attached for your review.

Any information you have concerning this matter should be brought to the attention of:

Martha Bedoy
Vice President, Manager of External Investigations
Corporate Security
City National Bank
P.O. Box 30890
Los Angeles, California 90030-0890
Telephone: (213) 347-2678
Fax: (213) 347-2656
martha.bedoy@cnb.com

Information about these instruments may be forwarded to the FDIC's Cyber-Fraud and Financial Crimes Section, 550 17th Street, N.W., Room F-4004, Washington, D.C. 20429, or transmitted electronically to alert@fdic.gov. Information related to federal deposit insurance or consumer issues should be submitted to the FDIC using an online form that can be accessed at http://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail/index.asp.

For your reference, FDIC Special Alerts may be accessed from the FDIC's Web site at www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2005/index.html. To learn how to automatically receive FDIC Special Alerts through e-mail, please visit www.fdic.gov/about/subscriptions/index.html.

Michael J. ZamorskiDirector
Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection