Since Fax is not defined by the rule, would it be considered "written or electronic" under 1005.31(a)(2) where we can give the pre disclosure by fax back to consumer? or would it be considered "mobile application or text message" where the pre disclosure must be give verbally?

Would email be considered electronic?

80% of the orders we receive are by fax and 20% are by email.

Fax is neither fish nor fowl. You can't consider it to be a phone request to let you provide oral pre-payment disclosures. It is most definitely not a mobile app or text message transaction, either. One argument you might make is that faxes are electronic, so you could make your pre-payment disclosure electronically, but that brings you to a blind alley because without ESIGN you cannot provide electronic receipts or combo disclosures.

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that if you have previously done the ESIGN dance to get authorization to make remittance transfer disclosures electronically (via email, for example), only then could you start with a fax request and complete the transaction.

If you can't go that way, I think you have to follow the fax request with a telephone call so you and the sender can complete the transaction by phone, which will allow you to follow the steps provided in the regulation for phone transactions.

Email is electronic, and you could do the pre-payment disclosure by return email. But before you could complete the transaction, wihch will require a written receipt, you will need ESIGN demonstrable consent to use electronic delivery of the receipt.

If you don't have a commercially reasonable security procedure in place and just go on the submission of a fax for any wire transfer - disclosure processes are the least of your worries.

THey sure make things complicated. These Foreign Remittance Transfers with us take 2 minutes from receipt of a request to transfer from sender, to call back for verification, to entering the information onto the transfer software, to debiting the DDA. We will have to do a pre-disclosure on the call back, and receipt 1 minute later by fax or email. One disclosure would have been alot easier.