Legal ownership of funds deposited in a bank?

Yes- only bit I'm not sure of is the "reports that this was done in error" bit. I'm assuming the customer agrees this was done in error and that it isn't his money. If he thinks he genuinely has a claim on the money other than by the fact it was put there it could be different.

Neb

Yes but not without a by-your-leave, not unless they notice and correct their mistake almost as soon as they've made it. I think there is a very short deadline - about a day or so. Once it expires, they have to ask your permission to claw it back.

The bad news is that you *must* give that permission, subject to being given time to rearrange things so you don't go (more) overdrawn (than you otherwise would) as a result. After all, it's someone else's money; the fact that it's been put into your account by mistake doesn't make it yours. Only if you honestly and innocently didn't notice the mistake and assumed it was just down to your astute housekeeping skills that your account balance was less close to zero than usual, would you have grounds for asking to be given time.

Chris secured a place in history by writing:

Yes. You'd have to argue quite hard to be allowed time to repay it in instalments (ie show that you thought it was yours and had spent it etc). It would hardly be fair if banks weren't allowed to correct mistakes, we all make them....