In the CFPB Small Entity Guide it states the Date Issued for the Loan Estimate is mailed or delivered to the consumer. If the Loan Estimate is prepared one day, then mailed the next to the consumer (still within the 3 days) are we out of compliance with this requirement?

I think the "date issued" should show as the day it is delivered or placed in the mail, not the day before.

I agree. It is my understanding that the LE should be dated the day it leaves your shop.

I am really not to sure how the commentary could be written to be more clear:

37(a)(4) Date issued.

1. Applicable date. Section 1026.37(a)(4) requires disclosure of the date the creditor mails or delivers the Loan Estimate to the consumer. The creditor’s method of delivery does not affect the date issued.

This makes me think of a previously place I worked out. They had a common practice of printing/preparing the LE in anticipation of the borrower coming in for a face-to-face, then if the borrower did not show they would give the LE the next day or the day after or mail before the 3 days from application was up. Guessing there were actually a lot of technical violations for the LE "Date Issued" field.

I can't find it, but there is a previous discussion about this date and a certain electronic delivery service that was altering the Date Issued to agree with the date on which the consumer opened the email and, I believe, gave "demonstrable consent" for e-disclosures. That would be a violation of the requirement discussed here.

Follow-up to the comment above regarding "demonstrable consent" for e-disclosures: Our e-Sign "Certificate" from the vendor shows that an e-Sign event (and invitation) was sent to the applicant on 6-13-17. (This is also the date of our Loan Estimate.) The applicant did not open and consent to the e-Sign until 6-14-17. He then electronically signed our Loan Estimate on the 14th. So, because we did not yet have "demonstrable consent" on the 13th when we sent our Loan Estimate, and the applicant did not consent and open the documents until the next day (14th), we therefore did not deliver within the required 3 business days, right? We essentially delivered a day late?

What if our LE is dated 6-13-17 but the 3rd business day is actually 6-14-17 using the scenario above? The customer consented to e-Sign and signed the LE on the 14th, which is the true 3rd business day (despite the LE being dated on the 13th), in that case we are okay?

You could be putting too fine a point on the question. If the e-SIGN demonstrable consent occurred before the consumer read the disclosure, there is a good argument that the electronic version was made "legal," in spite of its having been sent the day before.

Personally, I think that if you are at the deadline for sending the disclosure, I think you're smarter to send it in written form, in addition to the e-disclosure, so that there is no doubt that the disclosure was timely sent in proper form. Betting that a consumer is going to do something on a particular day to legitimize an e-disclosure that's already en route is just begging for trouble, IMHO.

Yes, we had that issue at a previous place I worked, i.e. with e-Sign not occurring until after the 3 day period. In essence, my understanding is that you would not have considered to "deliver" or "provide" the LE within 3 days from application if 6/13 was your last day to disclose and the applicant had not yet consented to receiving documents electronically. You didn't truly "deliver" until 6/14/2017 because that is when they consented and made the electronic provision legitimate. We would train our people responsible for disclosing to place a hard copy in the mail on the 3rd business day from application if the applicant didn't consent by that time.

Covering your assets with a paper copy in the mail by the deadline is the only way to resolve the matter if you can't confirm E-SIGN status.