When a customer orally informs us of unauthorized transactions on his or her account, is it a problem that at the same time, we have a form with Reg E verbiage that we provide to the customer, asking him or her to sign? This form has a place for the customer's name and account number, describes that we will provide provisional credit, and that it may be removed if we find that the customer is responsible. This form serves as written confirmation that we may require.

My concern is that 205.11(b)(2) states:"(2) Written confirmation. A financial institution may require the consumer to give written confirmation of an error within 10 business days of an oral notice. An institution that requires written confirmation shall inform the consumer of the requirement and provide the address where confirmation must be sent when the consumer gives the oral notification."

We're not actually asking the customer to mail the form, but to leave it wih us, so there is no address that it must be sent. Additionally, we were considering updating the form to include the Visa Zero Liability requirements along with Reg E, so that the customer knows the timing requirements (such as providing provisional credit within 5 days of notification).

First, make sure to update the regulatory citation to the CFPB's Reg E 1005.11(b)(2). Second, since the customer is face to face with you, note there is no requirement that you provide the customer with an address on your written form. In this case you'd say, "Here, sign this please." The address in this case happens to be the one they are at. If you accept a claim over the phone and have to mail a form to the customer, then you should be providing an address to which the form should be returned. Note that the explanations about provisional credit on this form do not satisfy the requirement in 1005.11(c)(2)(ii) to notify the customer within 2 business days of providing the provisional credit.

Since you are always permitted to do more for the customer, you can choose to include information about VISA's 5 business day requirement for provisional credit on claims involving fraud. Again, make sure that you notify the customer after you have provided the provisional credit.

Brian, if we provide the provisional credit the same day, we still have to provide the notice, correct? I know that there is no regulatory requirement to state 5 business days for Reg E, but we thought that it would be of assistance to the employee working the claim to know that they really only have 5 days, contractually.

Although the regulatory requirement does not require written notice, you must inform the customer once the provisional credit is in the account. If this is done by the person accepting the claim, they could provide oral notice while the customer is still at the branch. From an audit/exam standpoint, you would want to be able to document compliance with the notice requirement so you would also want somewhere the person could notate that they provided oral notice, to whom, when, etc. If operations deposits the provisional credit later, obviously the best way to maintain a record of compliance is a copy of the letter or advice that you send the customer.

Thank you, Brian.