This is a great post and Banks would do well to listen to this. Kudo’s to Heather the manager for correcting it right away, but this story should define how a bank can improve.
The core point here is that the Bank needs to know each customer real time. It is no surprise the customer used the the ATM,to make their deposit. 85% of all transactions are handled electronically nowadays. So the focus of development should not be on the branch anymore; it needs to be on the place the customer spends their time … the electronic channels.
So its essential that CRM systems can identify which customers like this one, are no risk, and should not have a hold placed. The system needs to know this when the customer makes the deposit, quietly and unobtrosively behind the scenes.
Today I deposited a couple of cheques at my bank, Bank of Montreal, using an ATM. Normally, that’s how I use the bank. Before today, I hadn’t spoken to a teller for a few years. After depositing the cheque I decided that I needed to transfer some of the funds from one account to another; the ATM wouldn’t let me, something about a hold. So I went in to see what the problem was. The very nice teller explained that I had a one-day hold on the cheques as they needed to be verified before the hold could be taken off. Of course, I was a little incensed, I have a mortgage with the bank, have never been late with a payment, never bounced a cheque, have a line of credit, been banking with them for 20 years, hell I know the loan officer by name, why do I have a hold?
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Bankwatch 
So its essential that CRM systems can identify which customers like this one, are no risk
Its not really the depositing client that is in question (in terms of risk) its the payor of the check, correct? So until all check deposits are dynamically cleared in real time across all banks, why would the Bank grant immediate availability?
Agreed, but there is room to help the depositing customer out if they have a history with the bank, and on that basis accept some of the risk with them.
For example in this case a long time customer, with other products. They are making the deposit in good faith, probably made other deposits before so the risk is low. Factor in that its a good customer, and even if the cheque does come back, they will be able to cover it in due course. This will get the bank a loyal customer. In fact make all the decisions that the branch manager made anyway, but do it automatically at the time of the deposit.