I have read the official interpretation of Business Days in Reg E and I guess I still need some clarification. We are currently open on Saturdays until 12:00 (noon). Our eBranch department (call center) is staffed on Saturday's, but with a limited staff (2 out of 6 employees work Saturday's) and this is the department that handles our Reg E claims. Our Reg E disclosure lists business days as Monday - Friday. Taking all of this into account, is it correct to say that day zero for a claim reported on Saturday would actually be Monday, when determining when to credit provisional credit?

I guess I have to ask. How can your business days be Monday to Friday when you are open on Saturdays?

Well, Reg E's definition of business day is:

d) “Business day” means any day on which the offices of the consumer's financial institution are open to the public for carrying on substantially all business functions.

And the official interpretation of "substantially all business functions" is:

2. Substantially all business functions. Substantially all business functions include both the public and the back-office operations of the institution. For example, if the offices of an institution are open on Saturdays for handling some consumer transactions (such as deposits, withdrawals, and other teller transactions), but not for performing internal functions (such as investigating account errors), then Saturday is not a business day for that institution. In this case, Saturday does not count toward the business-day standard set by the regulation for reporting lost or stolen access devices, resolving errors, etc.

Not all back-office operations work on Saturdays. Our branches are open to perform transactions and open new accounts and our call center has 2 employees that work to take calls. So I take this as Saturday would not be considered a business day. However, I could be wrong....

I've read it the same as you Bankwoman. We are still very small, so I am the primary investigator for Reg E claims. I rotate Saturdays, but when I work on a Saturday, my primary job is supervisory teller operations, not processing Reg E. That is not to say that if our ATM goes down and a member doesn't receive funds I won't assist on a Saturday, but it is seldom that this has come up. So I do not count Saturday as a business day unless I issue provisional credit in one of those remote circumstances and then that particular dispute is dated including the Saturday date.

I was basing it on this statement: "Our eBranch department (call center) is staffed on Saturday's, but with a limited staff (2 out of 6 employees work Saturday's) and this is the department that handles our Reg E claims."

How you staff a department is an internal business decision, but if the department that handles Reg E claims is open - how can you say it is not?

If your Reg E department is active on Saturday, I would have to agree that for Reg E purposes Saturday is a business day. We have a dedicated staff for Reg E here as well, but that department is off on every weekend - no staff at all. So we do not count Saturday as a business day.

Unless I am missing something?.... What is the primary function of your Reg Staff that works on Saturday? If it is, in fact, to work Reg E claims, you really have no basis NOT to include Saturday as a business day.

I probably should of clarified that a little more. The main purpose of our eBranch staff on Saturday's is to answer phones and handle any issues from those phone calls. While we have 6 people in this department, only 2 of them handle Reg E claims, the manager and the asst. manager. They do not work on the same Saturday - they rotate Saturday's and then only work with one other employee. So, I wouldn't even say their main purpose on Saturday is to work Reg E claims - because of the number of phone calls received, I doubt they would even have time to begin an investigation. So, I do not consider this their main function on Saturday.

I've never been an examiner - so I can't say how likely they would be to accept this. If this is the stance you're taking, my best advise is to be sure your have it written and documented. This way, if it is questioned, you have a detailed accounting of your reasoning.

I should expand on this a little also - our manager and assistant manager do not work every other Saturday. So there are Saturday's where we do not have either one of them here. And as I said, they are the only employees that handle claims.