During a period of almost two years, Great Lakes Higher Education Corp. (Great Lakes), a not-for-profit student loan servicer, issued 224 student loan checks totaling $273,152.88.

The checks were drawn against Great Lakes’s account at First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee (First Wisconsin).

Each of the 224 checks was presented to Austin Bank of Chicago

(Austin) without indorsement of the named payee.

Austin Bank accepted each check for purposes of collection and without delay forwarded each check to First Wisconsin for that purpose. First Wisconsin paid Austin Bank the face amount of each check even though the indorsement signature of the payee was not on any of the checks. Has Austin Bank breached its warranty to First Wisconsin and Great Lakes due to the absence of proper indorsements? Explain.