Congrats, Brandon D, on your first post in our Discussion Forums.

As for David Dickinson's observation, I have to support it. The customer has the right to know his credit is final and his claim is resolved as promptly as you can get it taken care of, within the 45/90 day absolute limits.

In the case where there is a REG E dispute being made on a joint account where each owner has their own personal Debit Card. If a joint owner disputes a transaction which appears on their account, but the transaction was not performed with their Debit card but rather the Joint Owners. How do we best handle this? Can we close the case stating that No Error occurred because the joint owner whose card was used is not claiming that there was an error? Can we tell them that the joint owner would have to dispute the transaction?

No to both questions.

Reg E permits either owner to assert that an electronic funds transfer error occurred regardless of any VISA/Mastercard requirements to obtain a signed letter from the cardholder.

You can either attempt to investigate outside of the chargeback process by contacting the merchant directly or attempting a retrieval request (to which the merchant may or may not respond) or try contacting the cardholder and requesting that they provide the requested disputed letter to utilize the chargeback process (if available.)

When a bank receives credit from the merchant in response to a fraud claim - has given provisional credit to the customer - and the 45/90 days aren't up and the bank has no way of knowing that the merchant will represent the transaction - the bank has not closed the complaint and the item represents. What is the best way to handle this? Is this considered the same complaint? Should the bank close the original complaint within 3 days when the bank receives credit from merchant and open a new complaint when the transaction represents?

If we receive verbal notification from customer, and we advise them that we require written notification - I understand that we must begin our investigation with or without the written notification and that absent the written notification we do not have to provide provisional credit within the 10 business days. We would continue our investigation without the written notification - in this case are we not required to provide provisional credit if we can not complete the investigation within 10 business days? What happens If we receive the written notification on the 18th day from when we were first notified verbally are we then required to immediately provide provisional credit?

No. If the consumer doesn't provide the requested written confirmation within 10 business days of making the oral claim, the provisional credit requirement is gone, period.

To answer Happy's question, no it is still the same claim.

VISA/Mastercard both state that a merchant has 45 days from the chargeback date to represent. Ask your card processor if they have reports to track open chargebacks so that you know when the timeframe for a representment has past and you can safely close an investigation.

If you close the claim before the merchant represents and the documentation proves that no error occurred, you cannot go back to recover the provisional credit since it has been finalized. Instead, keep the claim open while waiting for representment documents and use the representment documents to determine whether or not an error occurred. We may determine that an error occurred and close the investigation under Reg E, but still need additional information from the customer (updated letter for example) to file pre-arbitration or arbitration chargeback. These additional VISA/MC processes are designed to help you recover the funds for the bank, but are separate from your obligation to reimburse the customer if you determine that an error occurred.

I want to be sure I am stating this correctly.
With respect to REG E errors.
Lets say a customer has had numerous unauthorized POS transactions on their account since January and they are just now coming to file a dispute in May. The unauthorized POS transactions are from various Different Merchants and occurred over several months:
January 10th, 15th, 30th,
Feb 8th, 28th,
March 6th,
April 10th, 12th, 20th 30th.
An account statement was mailed to them at the end of each month.
On May 19th the customer notices their balance is less than expected and now wants to file a REG E claim.
which transactions would we have to resolve within the REG E timeframes?

All of January, February and the March 6th transaction. Those done in April are the responsibility of the consumer.

Agreed, unless the card was lost or stolen and the customer realized it earlier than the end of March. But your description suggests the card was in the cardholder's hands continuously, so it appears the bank pays for the unauthorized EFTs in Jan, Feb and Mar.

In the scenario the customer is responsible for the unauthorized transaction done in April, are we then required to cover the April transactions under MasterCard zero liability? What does MasterCard consider timely notification? Wondering when you will be holding another MasterCard / Reg E webinar?

Would you be able to tell me if there is a letter library where we can get the verbiage for denial letters within the Reg E guidelines?

There isn't a model form letter, so the language is really up to you. That said, if a customer submits a dispute where you provide provisional credit and you determine an error didn't occur and wish to revoke provisional credit, the following outlines your notification responsibilities:

"(d) Procedures if financial institution determines no error or different error occurred. In addition to following the procedures specified in paragraph (c) of this section, the financial institution shall follow the procedures set forth in this paragraph (d) if it determines that no error occurred or that an error occurred in a manner or amount different from that described by the consumer:

(1) Written explanation. The institution's report of the results of its investigation shall include a written explanation of the institution's findings and shall note the consumer's right to request the documents that the institution relied on in making its determination. Upon request, the institution shall promptly provide copies of the documents.

(2) Debiting provisional credit. Upon debiting a provisionally credited amount, the financial institution shall:

(i) Notify the consumer of the date and amount of the debiting;

(ii) Notify the consumer that the institution will honor checks, drafts, or similar instruments payable to third parties and preauthorized transfers from the consumer's account (without charge to the consumer as a result of an overdraft) for five business days after the notification. The institution shall honor items as specified in the notice, but need honor only items that it would have paid if the provisionally credited funds had not been debited."

BOL Guru Andy Zavonia is giving a Reg E webinar on Tuesday March 19th. I know that he includes sample letters as part of his materials.

The A - Z of Reg E

We have sample letters available for free. They are called "EFT Error Sample Letters" and you can download them by going to:
https://www.bankerscompliance.com
at the top, click on "Free Downloads". They are in the "Deposit Operations Tools" folder.