Hi, y'all

We are considering having our customers who have an electronic statement for one product switch to all e-statement delivery.

I was going through regulation E, but did not see anything which prohibits it. Of course, if a customer decides they do not want it, we will honor their request.

No fees will be assessed for not staying on e-statements; but the thought process is going all or nothing.

Can anybody share any insight as to whether this is permitted?

thanks in advance!

Sure, it's permitted. But you'll need to get E-SIGN consent before substituting electronics for paper and ink. If you already have a consent, check to see if it's broadly worded enough to cover other accounts. If not, be broad in your scope when soliciting E-SIGN consent this time.

As you note, you can't force them to take paper (you can sign new customers up for e-disclosure only and charge a fee for paper statements, but you can't push it down on current paper statement folks.

Since any statement containing disclosures required by Regs. E, DD, Z, etc. must be delivered "in writing", then you necessarily put these existing e-statement customers through ESIGN's informed demonstrable consent handshake. Part of that exercise was your explanation of and the customer's agreement to the scope of your tree-free delivery. ESIGN's requirement was that you inform the customer (consumers only) whether his/her consent would apply (a) to a single transaction, or (b) to identified categories of records that you are providing during the relationship. Depending on how you worded that part of your ESIGN pre-consent disclosure, you might already have the necessary consent to switch other types of statements from paper to electrons.

ESIGN does not permit implementing regulations and no federal agency is authorized to interpret the act. Therefore, it's anybody's guess what constitutes a "category" of records. If you're comfortable that your pre-consent disclosure was worded very broadly and "category" clearly includes the other types of statements you now want to switch, I'd provide a courtesy notice on the last one or two paper statements and then make the switch for those customers who already consented.

Under no circumstance can you convert a customer until you have the appropriate ESIGN-compliant consent, so there's no way you'll ever be rid of paper statements entirely.

Thank you very much, gentlemen! I greatly appreciate your responses.