hi, all

i browsed through, but could not find the answer so i am posting the question.

If a customer decides to opt in for electronic statements, can the bank opt them in for ALL e statements on their accounts? by that i mean in addition to their deposit accounts; we would opt them in to credit card, mortgage, line of credit, money market, etc.

in going through the reg, i did not see a specific prohibition, but i am more concerned with a customer service issue or potentially a udaap risk.

thoughts you can share?

thank you in advance.

The lowest common denominator is NOT "statements" or types of "accounts", or "disclosures", but rather the legal definition of "in writing."

All of the types of consumer products you listed are subject to one or more federal consumer protection regulations (E, DD, Z, etc.) requiring disclosures. While the content and timing will vary (depending on the type of product and the nature of the event triggering the disclosure), many of these assorted disclosures (including the ones printed into your "statements") must be delivered to the consumer in writing.

Pre-2000, that meant paper--only. Now, ESIGN allows electronic documents to become the legal equivalent of paper. In order to obtain ESIGN's license, you provide a series of how-it-works disclosures and obtain the consumer's consent to those terms.

Of particular importance is the how-it-works disclosure required by Section 7001(c)(1)(B)(ii):

(ii) ...whether the consent applies

(I) only to the particular transaction which gave rise to the obligation to provide the record, or

(II) to identified categories of records that may be provided or made available during the course of the parties’ relationship;

In order to accomplish your objective, you would simply need to reword this part of your pre-consent disclosures!

Thank you, sir!

And, of course, reworded pre-consent disclosures will not cover customers who consented in the past. You'll need to go back to these consenting customers and obtain their agreement to expand the scope of the consent.

Richard gave you the answer, but I feel the need to emphasize that the bank will disclose what the consent applies to and the consumer (we're not talking commercial accounts) will agree to it, and then you have an agreement as to what will be done. The bank could go all or nothing but it isn't as though the consumer is forced into this or the bank hides what is included. If the consumer doesn't like the result, they get to opt-out.