do we need separate consent from each applicant
Consent is necessary only when you:
- are delivering federal disclosures, and
- the rules for delivering those federal disclosures say the disclosures must be delivered "in writing", and
- you and the customer have agreed to substitute electrons for paper.
Therefore, the answer to your question lies within the regulation requiring each disclosure. If its general delivery requirements say you are required to provide certain disclosures to all applicants, accountholders, etc., then all must consent for the e-delivered disclosures to be legal. Not all consumer protection regs are worded the same, so you have to look at each one that applies to the disclosures you want to send electronically.
As BrianC advises, when consent is necessary, a single consent can apply to as many e-documents as you spell out in your ESIGN pre-consent disclosure. Before consent is valid, however, the consumer must pass a "test drive" of your e-delivery system(s). If you have more than one e-document delivery system (ex- one for deposits and a different one for loans), then you will need as many "test drives" as the number of e-document delivery systems you will use to provide various federal disclosures to the consumer giving consent. .