SECTION
229.15—General Disclosure Requirements
A. 229.15(a) Form of Disclosures 1. This
paragraph sets forth the general requirements for the disclosures
required under subpart B. All of the disclosures must be given in
a clear and conspicuous manner, must be in writing, and, in most cases,
must be in a form the customer may keep. A disclosure is in a form
that the customer may keep if, for example, it can be downloaded or
printed. For a customer that is not a consumer, a depositary bank
satisfies the written-disclosure requirement by sending an electronic
disclosure that displays the text and is in a form that the customer
may keep, if the customer agrees to such means of disclosure. For
a customer who is a consumer, a depositary bank satisfies the written-notice
requirement by sending an electronic notice in compliance with the
requirements of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce
Act (12 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.), which include obtaining the consumer’s
affirmative consent to such means of notice. Disclosures posted at
locations where employees accept consumer deposits, at ATMs, and on
preprinted deposit slips need not be in a form that the customer may
keep. Appendix C of the regulation contains model forms, clauses,
and notices to assist banks in preparing disclosures.
2. Disclosures concerning availability must
be grouped together and may not contain any information that is not
related to the disclosures required by this subpart. Therefore, banks
may not intersperse the required disclosures with other account disclosures
and may not include other account information that is not related
to their availability policy within the text of the required disclosures.
Banks may, however, include information that is related to their availability
policies. For example, a bank may inform its customers that, even
when the bank has already made funds available for withdrawal, the
customer is responsible for any problem with the deposit, such as
the return of a deposited check.
3. The regulation does not require that the disclosures
be segregated from other account terms and conditions. For example,
banks may include the disclosure of their specific availability policy
in a booklet or pamphlet that sets out all of the terms and conditions
of the bank’s accounts. The required disclosures must, however, be
grouped together and highlighted or identified in some manner, for
example, by use of a separate heading for the disclosures, such as
“When Deposits Are Available for Withdrawal.”
4. A bank may, by agreement or at the consumer’s
request, provide any disclosure or notice required by subpart B in
a language other than English, provided that the bank makes a complete
disclosure available in English at the customer’s request.
9-191
1. This paragraph requires banks to disclose in
a uniform manner when deposited funds will be available for withdrawal.
Banks must disclose when deposited funds are available for withdrawal
by stating the business day on which the customer may begin to withdraw
funds. The business day funds will be available must be disclosed
as “the
business day after” the day of deposit,
or substantially similar language. The business day of availability
is determined by counting the number of business days starting with
the business day following the banking day on which the deposit is
received, as determined under section 229.19(a), and ending with the
business day on which the customer may begin to withdraw funds. For
example, a bank that imposes delays of four intervening business days
for nonlocal checks must describe those checks as being available
on “the fifth business day after” the day of the deposit.9-192
1. This paragraph clarifies that banks
need not
provide multiple disclosures under the regulation. A single disclosure
to a customer that holds multiple accounts, or a single disclosure
to one of the account holders of a jointly held account, satisfies
the disclosure requirements of the regulation.
9-193
1. This
paragraph makes clear that banks need not provide disclosure of their
specific availability policies to customers that hold accounts that
are either dormant or inactive. The determination that certain accounts
are dormant or inactive must be made by the bank. If a bank considers
an account dormant or inactive for purposes other than this regulation
and no longer provides statements and other mailings to an account
for this reason, such an account is considered dormant or inactive
for purposes of this regulation.
