When a customer signs a Written Statement of Unauthorized Debit (WSUD) the Reg E process is pretty simply. The back office returns the ACH and credits the account the same day and there is no additional investigation. The customer has their credit before the 10th business day so no provisional credit is necessary so all we have to do is notify the consumer of the conclusion of our investigation within three business days of concluding our "investigation." 1005.11(c). This notice may be as simple as the person taking the signed WSUD telling the customer, "We'll credit your account today." For auditing purposes, some institution's procedures state that the back office will provide a notice of the credit in writing, however Reg E does not require this.
If the customer makes an oral dispute and does not provide written confirmation by the 10th business day, provided your disclosures permit it, Reg E 1005.11(c)(2)(I)(A) states that provisional credit is not required. However, we must still investigate under Reg E. Since we cannot return the ACH without a WSUD, we may need to conduct an investigation by contacting the originating bank to request a copy of the authorization for the debit to determine if our customer did authorize the transaction or not. We may also review the customer's account history to see if they have been debited by this merchant before and if the ACH record appears to be a payment initiated on their behalf. If we cannot conclude whether or not the customer authorized the debit by the 45th day, we will have to pay the claim even if we cannot return the ACH.
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