When is Day One to start the clock for the 10 day provisional? Is it the day I received the claim or the first business day following the receipt of the claim?

The day of receipt of the claim is "day zero." The first business day that you count ends at midnight on the first business day following the day of the notice.

John - I am curious to find out the authority for your determination that the day of claim receipt is day zero? I have been struggling with that issue recently as I try to give guidance to system programmers.

Based upon your determination of when day 1 is:

Customer makes a claim under Reg E at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, day 1 doesn't start until Tuesday, then in essence you have a full business day extra to complete your investigation or give provisional credit? And if such is the case, when is provisional credit deemed timely given, according to the "within 10 business days" requirement of Reg E?

I don't find anything in the commentary or supplementary guidance, and have been unsuccessful in finding any caselaw on point. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

I concur with John. In all the discussions with regulators I've had, they are stringent in their interpretation of a "business day" when it comes to a consumer. A "business day" is a full business day. For example, in the instance of a Billing Error, notice must be "...received by the institution no later than 60 days after the institution sends the periodic statement...on which the alleged error is first reflected."

The commentary is mute on the subject but I guarantee you that any regulator will consider the sending of the statement as Day 0 because the consumer must have a full 60 days to send in notice.

It stands to reason then that any reference to a business day would follow the same logic. In my dealings with both Reg E and Reg Z, I have observed the Day 0 interpretation.

I will tell you however that I set internal policies to treat the day in question as Day 1 instead of 0 in order to give the business a built-in 1-day cushion in case of a snafu. I make sure management is educated on the true regulatory requirement.