Sec. 229.19 - Miscellaneous.

Official Interpretation

XIII. Section 229.19 Miscellaneous

A. 229.19(a) When Funds Are Considered Deposited

1. The time funds must be made available for withdrawal under this subpart is determined by the day the deposit is made. This paragraph provides rules to determine the day funds are considered deposited in various circumstances.

2. Staffed facilities and ATMs. Funds received at a staffed teller station or ATM are considered deposited when received by the teller or placed in the ATM. Funds received at a contractual branch are considered deposited when received by a teller at the contractual branch or deposited into a proprietary ATM of the contractual branch. (See also, Commentary to §229.10(c) on deposits made to an employee of the depositary bank.) Funds deposited to a deposit box in a bank lobby that is accessible to customers only during regular business hours generally are considered deposited when placed in the lobby box; a bank may, however, treat deposits to lobby boxes the same as deposits to night depositories (as provided in §229.19(a)(3)), provided a notice appears on the lobby box informing the customer when such funds will be considered deposited.

Mail. Funds mailed to the depositary bank are considered deposited on the banking day they are received by the depositary bank. The funds are received by the depositary bank at the time the mail is delivered to the bank, even if it is initially delivered to a mail room, rather than the check processing area.

4. Other facilities.

a. In addition to deposits at staffed facilities, at ATMs, and by mail, funds may be deposited at a facility such as a night depository or a lock box. A night depository is a receptacle for receipt of deposits, typically used by corporate depositors when the branch is closed. Funds deposited at a night depository are considered deposited on the banking day the deposit is removed, and the contents of the deposit are accessible to the depositary bank for processing. For example, some businesses deposit their funds in a locked bag at the night depository late in the evening, and return to the bank the following day to open the bag. Other depositors may have an agreement with their bank that the deposit bag must be opened under the dual control of the bank and the depositor. In these cases, the funds are considered deposited when the customer returns to the bank and opens the deposit bag.

b. A lock box is a post office box used by a corporation for the collection of bill payments or other check receipts. The depositary bank generally assumes the responsibility for collecting the mail from the lock box, processing the checks, and crediting the corporation for the amount of the deposit. Funds deposited through a lock box arrangement are considered deposited on the day the deposit is removed from the lock box and are accessible to the depositary bank for processing.

5. Certain off-premise ATMs. A special provision is made for certain off-premise ATMs that are not serviced daily. Funds deposited at such an ATM are considered deposited on the day they are removed from the ATM, if the ATM is not serviced more than two times each week. This provision is intended to address the practices of some banks of servicing certain remote ATMs infrequently. If a depositary bank applies this provision with respect to an ATM, a notice must be posted at the ATM informing depositors that funds deposited at the ATM may not be considered deposited until a future day, in accordance with §229.18.

6. Banking day of deposit.

a. This paragraph also provides that a deposit received on a day that the depositary bank is closed, or after the bank's cut-off hour, may be considered made on the next banking day. Generally, for purposes of the availability schedules of this subpart, a bank may establish a cut-off hour of 2 p.m. or later for receipt of deposits at its head office or branch offices. For receipt of deposits at ATMs, contractual branches, or other off-premise facilities, such as night depositories or lock boxes, the depositary bank may establish a cut-off hour of 12:00 noon or later (either local time of the branch or other location of the depositary bank at which the account is maintained or local time of the ATM, contractual branch, or other off-premise facility). The depositary bank must use the same timing method for establishing the cut-off hour for all ATMs, contractual branches, and other off-premise facilities used by its customers. The choice of cut-off hour must be reflected in the bank's internal procedures, and the bank must inform its customers of the cut-off hour upon request. This earlier cut-off for ATM, contractual branch, or other off-premise deposits is intended to provide greater flexibility in the servicing of these facilities.

b. Different cut-off hours may be established for different types of deposits. For example, a bank may establish a 2 p.m. cut-off for the receipt of check deposits, but a later cut-off for the receipt of wire transfers. Different cut-off hours also may be established for deposits received at different locations. For example, a different cut-off may be established for ATM deposits than for over-the-counter deposits, or for different teller stations at the same branch. With the exception of the 12 noon cut-off for deposits at ATMs and off-premise facilities, no cut-off hour for receipt of deposits for purposes of this subpart can be established earlier than 2 p.m.

c. A bank is not required to remain open until 2 p.m. If a bank closes before 2 p.m., deposits received after the closing may be considered deposited on the next banking day. Further, as §229.2(f) defines the term banking day as the portion of a business day on which a bank is open to the public for substantially all of its banking functions, a day, or a portion of a day, is not necessarily a banking day merely because the bank is open for only limited functions, such as keeping drive-in or walk-up teller windows open, when the rest of the bank is closed to the public. For example, a banking office that usually provides a full range of banking services may close at 12 noon but leave a drive-in teller window open for the limited purpose of receiving deposits and making cash withdrawals. Under those circumstances, the bank is considered closed and may consider deposits received after 12 noon as having been received on the next banking day. The fact that a bank may reopen for substantially all of its banking functions after 2 p.m., or that it continues its back office operations throughout the day, would not affect this result. A bank may not, however, close individual teller stations and reopen them for next-day's business before 2 p.m. during a banking day.

Official Interpretation

B. 229.19(b) Availability at Start of Business Day

1. If funds must be made available for withdrawal on a business day, the funds must be available for withdrawal by the later of 9 a.m. or the time the depositary bank's teller facilities, including ATMs, are available for customer account withdrawals, except under the special rule for cash withdrawals set forth in §229.12(d). Thus, if a bank has no ATMs and its branch facilities are available for customer transactions beginning at 10 a.m., funds must be available for customer withdrawal beginning at 10 a.m. If the bank has ATMs that are available 24 hours a day, rather than establishing 12:01 a.m. as the start of the business day, this paragraph sets 9 a.m. as the start of the day with respect to ATM withdrawals. The Board believes that this rule provides banks with sufficient time to update their accounting systems to reflect the available funds in customer accounts for that day.

2. The start of business is determined by the local time of the branch or other location of the depositary bank at which the account is maintained. For example, if funds in a customer's account at a west coast bank are first made available for withdrawal at the start of business on a given day, and the customer attempts to withdraw the funds at an east coast ATM, the depositary bank is not required to make the funds available until 9 a.m. west coast time (12 noon east coast time).

Official Interpretation

C. 229.19(c) Effect on Policies of Depositary Bank

1. This subpart establishes the maximum hold that may be placed on customer deposits. A depositary bank may provide availability to its customers in a shorter time than prescribed in this subpart. A depositary bank also may adopt different funds availability policies for different segments of its customer base, as long as each policy meets the schedules in the regulation. For example, a bank may differentiate between its corporate and consumer customers, or may adopt different policies for its consumer customers based on whether a customer has an overdraft line of credit associated with the account.

2. This regulation does not affect a depositary bank's right to accept or reject a check for deposit, to charge back the customer's account based on a returned check or notice of nonpayment, or to claim a refund for any credit provided to the customer. For example, even if a check is returned or a notice of nonpayment is received after the time by which funds must be made available for withdrawal in accordance with this regulation, the depositary bank may charge back the customer's account for the full amount of the check. (See §229.33(d) and Commentary.)

3. Nothing in the regulation requires a depositary bank to have facilities open for customers to make withdrawals at specified times or on specified days. For example, even though the special cash withdrawal rule set forth in §229.12(d) states that a bank must make up to $400 available for cash withdrawals no later than 5 p.m. on specific business days, if a bank does not participate in an ATM system and does not have any teller windows open at or after 5 p.m., the bank need not join an ATM system or keep offices open. In this case, the bank complies with this rule if the funds that are required to be available for cash withdrawal at 5 p.m. on a particular day are available for withdrawal at the start of business on the following day. Similarly, if a depositary bank is closed for customer transactions, including ATMs, on a day funds must be made available for withdrawal, the regulation does not require the bank to open.

4. The special cash withdrawal rule in the EFA Act recognizes that the $400 that must be made available for cash withdrawal by 5 p.m. on the day specified in the schedule may exceed a bank's daily ATM cash withdrawal limit and explicitly provides that the EFA Act does not supersede a bank's policy in this regard. As a result, if a bank has a policy of limiting cash withdrawals from automated teller machines to $250 per day, the regulation would not require that the bank dispense $400 of the proceeds of the customer's deposit that must be made available for cash withdrawal on that day.

5. Even though the EFA Act clearly provides that the bank's ATM withdrawal limit is not superseded by the federal availability rules on the day funds must first be made available, the EFA Act does not specifically permit banks to limit cash withdrawals at ATMs on subsequent days when the entire amount of the deposit must be made available for withdrawal. The Board believes that the rationale behind the EFA Act's provision that a bank's ATM withdrawal limit is not superseded by the requirement that funds be made available for cash withdrawal applies on subsequent days. Nothing in the regulation prohibits a depositary bank from establishing ATM cash withdrawal limits that vary among customers of the bank, as long as the limit is not dependent on the length of time funds have been in the customer's account (provided that the permissible hold has expired).

6. Some small banks, particularly credit unions, due to lack of secure facilities, keep no cash on their premises and hence offer no cash withdrawal capability to their customers. Other banks limit the amount of cash on their premises due to bonding requirements or cost factors, and consequently reserve the right to limit the amount of cash each customer can withdraw over-the-counter on a given day. For example, some banks require advance notice for large cash withdrawals in order to limit the amount of cash needed to be maintained on hand at any time.

7. Nothing in the regulation is intended to prohibit a bank from limiting the amount of cash that may be withdrawn at a staffed teller station if the bank has a policy limiting the amount of cash that may be withdrawn, and if that policy is applied equally to all customers of the bank, is based on security, operating, or bonding requirements, and is not dependent on the length of time the funds have been in the customer's account (as long as the permissible hold has expired). The regulation, however, does not authorize such policies if they are otherwise prohibited by statutory, regulatory, or common law.

Official Interpretation

D. 229.19(d) Use of Calculated Availability

1. A depositary bank may provide availability to its nonconsumer accounts on a calculated availability basis. Under calculated availability, a specified percentage of funds from check deposits may be made available to the customer on the next business day, with the remaining percentage deferred until subsequent days. The determination of the percentage of deposited funds that will be made available each day is based on the customer's typical deposit mix as determined by a sample of the customer's deposits. Use of calculated availability is permitted only if, on average, the availability terms that result from the sample are equivalent to or more prompt than the requirements of this subpart.

Official Interpretation

E. 229.19(e) Holds on Other Funds

1. Section 607(d) of the EFA Act (12 U.S.C. 4006(d)) provides that once funds are available for withdrawal under the EFA Act, such funds shall not be frozen solely due to the subsequent deposit of additional checks that are not yet available for withdrawal. This provision of the EFA Act is designed to prevent evasion of the EFA Act's availability requirements.

2. This paragraph clarifies that if a customer deposits a check in an account (as defined in §229.2(a)), the bank may not place a hold on any of the customer's funds so that the funds that are held exceed the amount of the check deposited or the total amount of funds held are not made available for withdrawal within the times required in this subpart. For example, if a bank places a hold on funds in a customer's non transaction account, rather than a transaction account, for deposits made to the customer's transaction account, the bank may place such a hold only to the extent that the funds held do not exceed the amount of the deposit and the length of the hold does not exceed the time periods permitted by this regulation.

3. These restrictions also apply to holds placed on funds in a customer's account (as defined in §229.2(a)) if a customer cashes a check at a bank (other than a check drawn on that bank) over the counter. The regulation does not prohibit holds that may be placed on other funds of the customer for checks cashed over the counter, to the extent that the transaction does not involve a deposit to an account. A bank may not, however, place a hold on any account when an “on us” check is cashed over the counter. “On us” checks are considered finally paid when cashed (see U.C.C. 4-215(a)(1)). When a customer cashes a check over the counter and the bank places a hold on an account of the customer, the bank must give whatever notice would have been required under §§229.13 or 229.16 had the check been deposited in the account.

Official Interpretation

F. 229.19(f) Employee Training and Compliance

1. The EFA Act requires banks to take such actions as may be necessary to inform fully each employee that performs duties subject to the EFA Act of the requirements of the EFA Act, and to establish and maintain procedures reasonably designed to assure and monitor employee compliance with such requirements.

2. This paragraph requires a bank to establish procedures to ensure compliance with these requirements and provide these procedures to the employees responsible for carrying them out.

Official Interpretation

G. 229.19(g) Effect of Merger Transaction

1. After banks merge, there is often a period of adjustment before their operations are consolidated. This paragraph accommodates this adjustment period by allowing merged banks to be treated as separate banks for purposes of this subpart for a period of up to one year after consummation of the merger transaction, except that a customer of any bank that is a party to the transaction that has an established account with that bank may not be treated as a new account holder for any other party to the transaction for purposes of the new account exception of §229.13(a), and a deposit in any branch of the merged bank is considered deposited in the bank for purposes of the availability schedules in accordance with §229.19(a).

2. This rule affects the status of the combined entity in several areas. For example, this rule would affect when an ATM is a proprietary ATM (§229.2(aa) and §229.12(b)) and when a check is considered drawn on a branch of the depositary bank (§229.10(c)(1)(vi)).

3. Merger transaction is defined in §229.2(t).