I place a hold on a deposit to a joint account. The primary owner has other accounts in good standing that have not been overdrawn, but the joint owner has other accounts that have been overdrawn for more than 6 days.

So the question is, Can I use the overdraft exception hold when the primary owner deposits a check into their joint account or am I only allowed to hold the check for the regular two days?

I've read through the regs, but they don't seem to address joint accounts.

The hold is being placed due to overdraft activity in that account. The fact that it is a joint account is irrelevant. You may use the overdraft exception on any check deposited to the account.

The term "primary" has no meaning other than to indicate whose name is listed first in the title of a joint account.

Joe and Fred have a joint account. They each have individual accounts. Joe's individual account is overdrawn a lot. Fred's is not. Could you subject a check deposited to their joint account to a "repeated overdrafter" exception hold?

(d) Repeated overdrafts. If any account or combination of accounts of a depositary bank's customer has been repeatedly overdrawn, then for a period of six months after the last such overdraft, Secs. 229.10(c) and 229.12 do not apply to any of the accounts.

I don't see much ambiguity in the regulation; yes you could use the exception hold on the joint account. (That's consistent with the provisions of the large dollar exception hold that allow you to look at all of the customer's accounts, even those held in a different form of ownership.) Obviously, you're going to have to tell Fred about the basis for the hold.

If you have not been putting holds on Joe's deposits to his individual accounts it's going to look like you are just "outing" him to Fred. I would not do this unless it would appreciably reduce a risk I felt was significant...

Jones and Smith have a joint account, with no overdraft history. Jones has other individual accounts, all in good standing. Smith has other individual accounts, and collectively they have been overdrawn more than the required amounts and times to make Smith a repeatedly overdrawn customer.

The joint account is tainted by the overdraft history of Smith's other accounts, and you may impose a repeat overdrafter hold on checks deposited to the joint account. Jones' individual accounts are not affected by Smith's OD history.