Our bank decided (after reviewing the risks & not my decision, but...) to allow business customers to view/acess their personal accounts through their business online banking session. One of the issues that is now popping up is that our core processor doesn't support electronic sign-up/consent for estatements for our business online banking solution, it is a manual process done by the bank. The problem now is that the customer can't show "demonstratable consent" (not an issue for the business accounts, but an issue for the personal accounts) under the business online banking session to sign up. So, my only thought of a solution is to have the customer sign into our consumer online banking (even if they never use it again after this) and sign up/consent to receive estatements for their personal accounts. Then the bank would enroll their business accounts. After that the customer can log into business online banking and they can view their estatement there. We use a large core processor and I know that there must be other banks out there that use them and have run into this. Does anyone else have any thoughts on how else to handle this?

Do they have to get estatements in order to use your online banking?

No, they don't have to get estatements.

Is there a way to prevent them from signing up for estatements for personal accounts while signed on via the business side or to set their status for person to view only, they can't actually transact...to transact, make changes, etc. they would have to signon via the consumer side?

Yes, actually, they can't sign up for any estatements through their business online banking, that's a manual bank process they have to request. So, I think I'm covered if our process is that when a business customer requests estatements we only enroll them for business accounts and if they want their personal accounts on estatement we make them sign in through our personal online banking product and make them enroll themselves which forces them to consent through a PDF. Although, this is not ideal because our business customers may not use our consumer product at all, but we're going to have to "force" them to at least use it for the enrollment process. After they enroll on the consumer side they can actually view their personal estatements in the consumer product or the business product. I don't know if I've explained it very well. Does that make sense? From a compliance standpoint we should be covered as far as esign, right?

To me, it sounds like it should work. They will just have to understand that the initial signup for estatements for consumer products must be done through consumer side of ebanking so that proper disclosures/consent are obtained. I would tell them that.

Thanks Kathleen. I really appreciate your input.

How does the customer's act of giving consent demonstrate his/her capability to open and read a test document comparable to a live e-statement?

When they go through the process on the consumer online banking side, they are "forced" to open a PDF document with the terms/conditions and agree/consent before the enrollment process is complete. Our estatements are in a PDF format, so if they can open and agree through the PDF, then they are able to view an estatement.

Sounds like you have covered all the points!

Great, thank you Richard and Kathleen!

I have a question about estatement disclosures. I have an account type that the customer must agree at inception to receive estatements for, when they available. We are getting ready to "turn on" these estatements. I know there are several required elements to estatement disclosures, including how to withdraw from estatements. My question is, we do not want our customers to be able to withdraw consent for estatements for this specific account type. In the disclosure, can we state that for those accounts that we require estatements for, consent cannot be withdrawn?

ESIGN doesn't let you prohibit withdrawal of consent but it allows you to terminate the account or reprice it as a consequence of a customer opt-out.

If you didn't have e-delivery up and running when you opened the accounts, how did you handle demonstrable consent?