Other than state laws, are there any regulations that address how young a teller can be? (I've looked and can't find any info on it).

Don't know of any laws, but I started as a teller at 18, and it was hard to gain customer confidence. I can imagine any younger than that, and it would be near impossible to build that confidence with customers.

We have started tellers as young as 16, but it has never worked out well at all. I see tellers as having one of the hardest jobs in the bank, and I have noticed that most of the younger ones just don't have the maturity it takes to handle this job. I have also found that just a few years makes a big difference - we have had great luck with 20-21 year olds as tellers.

Way back when I was in High School, there was a "Regional Occupational Program" that Seniors could sign up for. They got training in a business, usually minimum wage, and also class credit for being at the business every afternoon during the week. A friend of mine enrolled, and was posted to a local branch of American Savings (are they still around?) as a teller. She was only 17.... But this was also over 20 years ago.

We have a school banking program where we have an actual in-school branch that high school students work at during their study periods. Often times these same students work weekends and summers at our branched to fill in vacation times. Some are 16 and 17, most are 18 and we have not had a problem. While sometimes there's a wardrobe issue or perhaps their language when speaking with a customer, these are great kids and really help us out when we're short due to vacations.

The bank I worked at prior to this one was very willing to hire part-time tellers in high school - they usually worked full-time over the summer and winter break which helped a lot with vacations. The most noticeable thing about this group of tellers was that you could usually find their last name elsewhere on the phone list - we hired the officers' (or other long-term employees) offspring or other kids well known to the officers or long-term employees - never had a problem with attitude, dress code, showing up, etc - it's kind of funny looking back at it, but it worked out really well - a lot of the kids would continue to work through college - our CEO had 3 kids that started working at Daddy's bank when they turned 14 (yard work, changing lightbulbs, etc) and were on the teller line at 16 - as the bank grew, we just started adding more offspring - one summer we referred to it as Nepotism Bank and Trust, but it actually worked out really well for everyone.

You may want to check with the bank's insurance/bonding policy and see if they have a minimum age requirement for personnel to handle cash.

I'm not sure of any state laws, but I would think you would have to be at least 16 to work as a teller for at least insurance and bonding purposes. I started working as a teller when I was 17. I worked part-time during school and full time during the summer. A lot of it depends on the maturity of the person. Some highschoolers just can't do it, but others can. It's about finding the right one. And I agree with an earlier post. Often the best teens to hire are the ones that other bank employees know, or are even related to. it's not a matter of favoritism, it's about trust and responsibility.