Skip to main content

Search

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(a) Timing of Disclosures

1. Early disclosures. Disclosures given by a financial institution earlier than the regulation requires (for example, when the consumer opens a checking account) need not be repeated when the consumer later enters into an agreement with a third party to initiate preauthorized transfers to or from the consumer’s account, unless the terms and conditions differ from those that the institution previously disclosed.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(1) Liability of Consumer

1. No liability imposed by financial institution. If a financial institution chooses to impose zero liability for unauthorized EFTs, it need not provide the liability disclosures. If the institution later decides to impose liability, however, it must first provide the disclosures.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(2) Telephone Number and Address

1. Disclosure of telephone numbers. An institution may use the same or different telephone numbers in the disclosures for the purpose of:

i. Reporting the loss or theft of an access device or possible unauthorized transfers;

ii. Inquiring about the receipt of a preauthorized credit;

iii. Stopping payment of a preauthorized debit;

iv. Giving notice of an error.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(4) Types of Transfers; Limitations

1. Security limitations. Information about limitations on the frequency and dollar amount of transfers generally must be disclosed in detail, even if related to security aspects of the system. If the confidentiality of certain details is essential to the security of an account or system, these details may be withheld (but the fact that limitations exist must still be disclosed). For example, an institution limits cash ATM withdrawals to $100 per day.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(5) Fees

1. Disclosure of EFT fees. An institution is required to disclose all fees for EFTs or the right to make them. Others fees (for example, minimum-balance fees, stop-payment fees, or account overdrafts) may, but need not, be disclosed. But see Regulation DD, 12 CFR Part 1030. An institution is not required to disclose fees for inquiries made at an ATM since no transfer of funds is involved.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(9) Confidentiality

1. Information provided to third parties. An institution must describe the circumstances under which any information relating to an account to or from which EFTs are permitted will be made available to third parties, not just information concerning those EFTs. The term “third parties” includes affiliates such as other subsidiaries of the same holding company.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 7(b)(10) Error Resolution

1. Substantially similar. The error resolution notice must be substantially similar to the model form in Appendix A of part 1005. An institution may use different wording so long as the substance of the notice remains the same, may delete inapplicable provisions (for example, the requirement for written confirmation of an oral notification), and may substitute substantive state law requirements affording greater consumer protection than Regulation E.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 8(a) Change-in-Terms Notice

1. Form of notice. No specific form or wording is required for a change-in-terms notice. The notice may appear on a periodic statement, or may be given by sending a copy of a revised disclosure statement, provided attention is directed to the change (for example, in a cover letter referencing the changed term).

2. Changes not requiring notice. The following changes do not require disclosure:

i. Closing some of an institution’s ATMs;

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 1005.9(a)-1 to -6

1. Receipts furnished only on request. The regulation requires that a receipt be “made available.” A financial institution may program its electronic terminals to provide a receipt only to consumers who elect to receive one.

2. Third party providing receipt. An account-holding institution may make terminal receipts available through third parties such as merchants or other financial institutions.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(a)(1) Amount

1. Disclosure of transaction fee. The required display of a fee amount on or at the terminal may be accomplished by displaying the fee on a sign at the terminal or on the terminal screen for a reasonable duration. Displaying the fee on a screen provides adequate notice, as long as a consumer is given the option to cancel the transaction after receiving notice of a fee. See § 1005.16 for the notice requirements applicable to ATM operators that impose a fee for providing EFT services.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(a)(2) Date

1. Calendar date. The receipt must disclose the calendar date on which the consumer uses the electronic terminal. An accounting or business date may be disclosed in addition if the dates are clearly distinguished.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(a)(3) Type

1. Identifying transfer and account. Examples identifying the type of transfer and the type of the consumer’s account include “withdrawal from checking,” “transfer from savings to checking,” or “payment from savings.”

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(a)(5) Terminal Location

1. Options for identifying terminal. The institution may provide either:

i. The city, state or foreign country, and the information in § 1005.9(a)(5) (i), (ii), or (iii), or

ii. A number or a code identifying the terminal. If the institution chooses the second option, the code or terminal number identifying the terminal where the transfer is initiated may be given as part of a transaction code.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(a)(6) Third Party Transfer

1. Omission of third-party name. The receipt need not disclose the third-party name if the name is provided by the consumer in a form that is not machine readable (for example, if the consumer indicates the payee by depositing a payment stub into the ATM). If, on the other hand, the consumer keys in the identity of the payee, the receipt must identify the payee by name or by using a code that is explained elsewhere on the receipt.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 1005.9(b)-1 to -6

1. Periodic cycles. Periodic statements may be sent on a cycle that is shorter than monthly. The statements must correspond to periodic cycles that are reasonably equal, that is, do not vary by more than four days from the regular cycle. The requirement of reasonably equal cycles does not apply when an institution changes cycles for operational or other reasons, such as to establish a new statement day or date.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(b)(1) Transaction Information

1. Information obtained from others. While financial institutions must maintain reasonable procedures to ensure the integrity of data obtained from another institution, a merchant, or other third parties, verification of each transfer that appears on the periodic statement is not required.

Paragraph 9(b)(1)(i)

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(b)(3) Fees

1. Disclosure of fees. The fees disclosed may include fees for EFTs and for other non-electronic services, and both fixed fees and per-item fees; they may be given as a total or may be itemized in part or in full.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 1005.9(c)-1

1. Transfers between accounts. The regulation provides an exception from the periodic statement requirement for certain intra-institutional transfers between a consumer’s accounts. The financial institution must still comply with the applicable periodic statement requirements for any other EFTs to or from the account. For example, a Regulation E statement must be provided quarterly for an account that also receives payroll deposits electronically, or for any month in which an account is also accessed by a withdrawal at an ATM.

Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 9(c)(1) Preauthorized Transfers to Accounts

1. Accounts that may be accessed only by preauthorized transfers to the account. The exception for “accounts that may be accessed only by preauthorized transfers to the account” includes accounts that can be accessed by means other than EFTs, such as checks. If, however, an account may be accessed by any EFT other than preauthorized credits to the account, such as preauthorized debits or ATM transactions, the account does not qualify for the exception.