New Bank Employee Training Plan: The First 90 Days

9/11/2026

Most banks onboard frontline staff the same way: a day of HR paperwork, a stack of policies to sign, a login to a learning system with twenty assigned modules, and then a seat next to an experienced teller who teaches the job the way they learned it. Some new hires thrive. Many leave within the first year, and a surprising number make a compliance mistake in their first month that nobody taught them to avoid.

A good 90-day plan fixes the order. It front-loads the handful of things a new employee must know before they touch a transaction, spreads the rest across the weeks when they will actually use it, and builds in checkpoints so the supervisor knows whether the training worked.

This plan is written for frontline new hires, meaning tellers, universal bankers and new-accounts staff, at a community or regional bank. Adapt the timing to your own roles, systems and policies, and to your training calendar. For a deeper look at the teller role itself, see our bank teller training guide.

The Principle: Compliance Before Transactions

Some training is optional in timing. Some is not.

A few regulatory requirements are written so that training must come first. The Bank Protection Act rules require each bank's security program to provide for initial and periodic training of employees in their security responsibilities and in proper conduct during and after a robbery. The Bank Secrecy Act program rules require training for appropriate personnel, and a teller handling cash is appropriate personnel from their first transaction. The interagency information security guidelines require staff to be trained to implement the bank's information security program, and a new hire gets system access in week one.

So the first rule of the plan: no one works a teller line or opens an account until the compliance essentials are complete. Everything else can be sequenced for learning. Tracking that gate is part of the bank's compliance management system, and it is one of the first things an examiner checks when a new hire makes a mistake.

The Plan at a Glance

Period	Focus	Sign-off before moving on
Week 1	Compliance essentials, security, systems access, banking basics	Compliance modules complete; robbery procedures reviewed
Week 2	Cash handling and core transactions, shadowing	Balances drawer under supervision
Weeks 3-4	Supervised transactions, holds, check review, CTR recognition	Handles routine transactions with spot checks
Weeks 5-8	Account products, account opening, fraud and exploitation, service	Opens a basic account correctly; escalates red flags
Weeks 9-12	Independence, referrals, certification path	90-day review and development plan

Week 1: Compliance Essentials and Banking Basics

Week one is about safety, legality and orientation. The new hire should finish the week knowing what they must never do, what they must always report, and who to call.

Day 1-2: The non-negotiables

Security and robbery procedures. What to do during and after a robbery, how alarms and cameras work at their branch, and opening and closing procedures. This is the Bank Protection Act's "initial" training, and it should be done in person at the branch where they will work, not only online.
BSA/AML fundamentals. What the Bank Secrecy Act is for, currency transaction reporting for cash over $10,000 in a business day, structuring and why it is a crime, and how to escalate unusual activity. The new hire does not need to know how to file a SAR. They need to know what to notice and who to tell, and that they must never tip off a customer.
OFAC basics. What sanctions screening is, what happens when the system flags a name, and that they must not process a flagged transaction on their own judgment.
Information security and privacy. Password and access rules, clean desk, phishing, how to verify a caller, and what customer information they may and may not share.

Day 3-5: Banking basics and systems

How a bank makes money, what deposits and loans are, and how the branch fits into the bank.
The core system and teller platform, in a training environment.
Deposit account types the bank offers, and basic deposit insurance concepts.
The bank's customer service standards.

The Banking Basics Suite is designed for exactly this stage: new employees who need a grounding in banking before they learn the bank's own procedures. Assign the compliance modules first, then the basics.

Week 1 checkpoint: compliance training records complete and filed; supervisor has walked the new hire through the robbery procedure at their branch.

Week 2: Cash Handling and Core Transactions

Week two moves to the drawer, with the new hire shadowing and then performing transactions under direct supervision.

Cash handling. Counting, strapping, drawer limits, buying and selling cash from the vault, and why dual control exists.
Core transactions. Deposits, withdrawals, check cashing for customers, transfers and loan payments.
Verifying customer identity for transactions and what to do when ID does not match.
Balancing the drawer daily, finding differences, and reporting outages honestly.

The most important lesson of week two is cultural: an outage reported immediately is a training issue, while an outage hidden is a conduct issue. Say so explicitly.

The Teller Operations course supports this week for teller hires.

Week 2 checkpoint: balances a drawer under supervision for several consecutive days.

Weeks 3-4: Supervised Independence

The new hire now handles routine transactions on their own, with a supervisor spot-checking and available for anything unusual.

Funds availability and holds. Regulation CC governs when deposited funds must be made available and when the bank may place an exception hold, with notice requirements. Tellers need to know the bank's availability policy, when a hold is permitted, and how to give the hold notice. The dollar amounts in Reg CC are adjusted periodically for inflation, so teach from the bank's current policy rather than a number memorized from an old manual. Our guide to Regulation CC funds availability explains the framework, and the Expedited Funds Availability (Reg CC) course covers the rule.

Check review. Endorsements, dates, alterations and the signs of counterfeit or altered items. Check fraud is still one of the most common losses at the branch level.

CTR recognition in practice. Aggregating cash across the business day, completing the information the bank needs for a CTR, and recognizing structuring patterns such as repeated deposits just under the threshold.

Week 4 checkpoint: handles routine transactions accurately with spot checks; has correctly escalated at least one exception or question.

Weeks 5-8: Accounts, Fraud and Service

With the transaction basics in place, the new hire learns the products and the risks behind them.

Account products and opening. For new-accounts staff and universal bankers, this is the core of the role.

Account types, ownership and titling, and which documents each requires.
Customer identification program requirements: the information the bank must collect before opening an account and how identity is verified.
Taxpayer identification and Form W-9, including entering the legal name exactly, which prevents IRS mismatch notices later.
Truth in Savings disclosures and fee schedules.
Deposit insurance questions customers ask, and when to refer them to a specialist.

The Deposit Accounts and Services course supports this stage.

Fraud and exploitation. By week five or six, the new hire has seen enough real customers to recognize when something is off.

Common scams: impostor calls, romance and investment scams, and fake check schemes.
Elder financial exploitation: the warning signs, how to talk to a customer who may be a victim, and the bank's escalation path. See our guide to elder financial exploitation.
Account takeover and social engineering, including how fraudsters try to manipulate frontline staff.

Service skills. Handling complaints, de-escalating upset customers, and explaining a hold or a fee without making the customer feel accused.

Week 8 checkpoint: opens a basic account correctly without help; has escalated a fraud or exploitation concern through the correct channel, or walked through one in a role-play.

Weeks 9-12: Independence and Development

The final month shifts from supervision to development.

How to recognize when a customer would benefit from a loan, investment or specialist conversation, and the limits on what frontline staff can say about products they are not licensed or trained to discuss.
Exception handling. Overrides, approvals and when to say no.
Refresher on week-one topics. Revisit BSA, security and information security with real examples from the past two months. Knowledge from day two is easy to lose.
Career path. Discuss what comes next: senior teller, universal banker, personal banker or lending. Certification programs give a structured path; our roundup of top banking certifications maps the options.

The 90-day review. Supervisor and new hire review performance, training completion, errors and outages, and agree a development plan for the next six months.

What the Supervisor Owns

A training plan fails when it is assigned to the learning system and nobody watches it. The supervisor's job is to:

Gate the work. Do not allow transactions or account opening until the required training is complete.
Review outcomes, not completions. A finished module proves attendance. Spot-checked transactions and correct escalations prove learning.
Make it safe to ask. New hires who are afraid to ask questions guess, and guessing at a teller window is how losses and violations happen.
Record everything. Training records with dates and content are what an examiner will ask for.

Common Mistakes in Bank Job Training

Twenty modules in week one. The new hire clicks through everything and retains little. Assign the essentials first and the rest when they are relevant.
Shadowing without structure. The experienced teller teaches their own shortcuts, including the ones that violate policy. Give mentors a checklist.
No robbery walk-through. Online modules cannot show where the alarm button is.
Compliance taught as rules without reasons. Staff who understand why a CTR exists recognize structuring; staff who memorized "$10,000" do not.
No 90-day review. Without a checkpoint, gaps surface later as errors.

Choosing Training for New Hires

Most banks combine three sources: their own policies and procedures, in-branch mentoring, and an external course library for the regulatory and banking fundamentals that do not change from bank to bank.

For the fundamentals, the Banking Basics Suite is the natural starting point for new frontline staff. Add role courses as the plan progresses: Teller Operations for tellers, Principles of Banking for a broader foundation, and BSA/Anti-Money Laundering and the Bank Protection Act course for the week-one compliance essentials. For staff ready for a credential after 90 days, the Foundations in Banking Certificate and the Certified Modern Banking Representative program are options. The Bank Teller and Front-End Training page lists more.

Next Step

Before your next hire starts, write down what they must complete before their first transaction, and assign it for day one. The Banking Basics Suite gives new employees the banking foundation the rest of the 90-day plan builds on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What training do new bank employees get?

New bank employees usually get a mix of compliance training, banking fundamentals, system training and on-the-job shadowing. The compliance core includes Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering basics, OFAC screening, information security and privacy, and robbery and security procedures. Banking fundamentals cover deposit products, how banks operate and customer service. Tellers then learn cash handling, transactions and balancing, while new-accounts staff learn account opening and customer identification. A good plan sequences these over roughly 90 days rather than assigning everything at once.

How long is bank teller job training?

It varies by bank, but most new tellers work under close supervision for the first few weeks and reach routine independence within one to two months. A full 90-day plan is common: the first week covers compliance essentials and banking basics, the second week cash handling and core transactions, weeks three and four supervised independence, and the remaining weeks products, fraud recognition and service skills. The compliance essentials must be completed before a new teller handles their first transaction.

What compliance training is required before a teller starts?

Before working a teller line, a new hire should complete Bank Secrecy Act training covering currency transaction reporting, structuring and escalation of suspicious activity; OFAC basics; information security training; and the bank's security program training, including robbery procedures. The Bank Protection Act rules specifically require initial training in security responsibilities and conduct during and after a robbery, and the BSA program rules require training for appropriate personnel, which includes anyone handling cash. Record completion before transactions begin.

What is banking 101 training?

Banking 101 training is introductory instruction for people new to the industry. It typically covers how banks make money, the difference between deposits and loans, common account types, the role of regulators and deposit insurance, basic compliance obligations, and customer service. It gives new tellers, universal bankers and operations staff the context they need to understand why procedures exist. Most banks pair a banking fundamentals course with their own policies and on-the-job training during the first weeks of employment.

Should new bank employees get a certification?

A certification is not required to work as a teller or frontline banker; there is no state or federal teller license. Many banks use certificate programs as a development step after onboarding, because they give employees a structured path and a credential that supports promotion. The first 90 days are better spent on compliance essentials and job skills. Discuss certification at the 90-day review, once the new hire knows which direction they want to grow, such as universal banker, personal banker or lending.

Who is responsible for training a new bank employee?

The branch manager or direct supervisor owns the new hire's training, even when content comes from a learning system or the training department. The supervisor gates work until required training is complete, assigns a mentor with a checklist, checks transactions and escalations to confirm learning, and conducts the 90-day review. Compliance and the BSA officer set the required content and frequencies, and HR or training maintains records. When a new hire makes an avoidable error, the first question examiners ask is what training they received.