PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

If you tell your bank about a suspected error on an electronic account record within 60 days after the bank sent you the statement or notice, and you give your name, account number, the amount you think is wrong, and why, the bank must investigate and tell you the result within 10 business days. The bank can ask you to send a written confirmation within 10 business days after an oral report if it told you to do that and gave an address. If you don’t send that confirmation, the bank does not have to make a provisional credit and won’t be liable for not doing so. If the bank finds an error, it must fix it quickly, and no later than 1 business day after deciding, including adding any interest as required under section 1693g. Instead of the normal deadlines, the bank can give you a provisional credit for the disputed amount within 10 business days while it finishes its investigation, which must end within 45 days; you can use those funds while the bank looks into it. If the bank decides there was no error, it must send an explanation within 3 business days after the investigation ends and, if you ask, send the documents it used. "Error" covers things like unauthorized or wrong transfers, missing transfers on a statement, math mistakes, wrong cash from a machine, requests for more information, and other errors the Bureau lists. If a court finds the bank acted badly—by not giving a provisional credit when required and not investigating in good faith or had no reasonable basis, or by knowingly reaching an unsupported no‑error conclusion—you may get treble damages under section 1693m(a)(1).

Title 15, §1693f

Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Notification to financial institution of error (b) Correction of error; interest

If a financial institution, within sixty days after having transmitted to a consumer documentation pursuant to section 1693d(a), (c), or (d) of this title or notification pursuant to section 1693d(b) of this title, receives oral or written notice in which the consumer—

(1)sets forth or otherwise enables the financial institution to identify the name and account number of the consumer;

(2)indicates the consumer’s belief that the documentation, or, in the case of notification pursuant to section 1693d(b) of this title, the consumer’s account, contains an error and the amount of such error; and

(3)sets forth the reasons for the consumer’s belief (where applicable) that an error has occurred,

the financial institution shall investigate the alleged error, determine whether an error has occurred, and report or mail the results of such investigation and determination to the consumer within ten business days. The financial institution may require written confirmation to be provided to it within ten business days of an oral notification of error if, when the oral notification is made, the consumer is advised of such requirement and the address to which such confirmation should be sent. A financial institution which requires written confirmation in accordance with the previous sentence need not provisionally recredit a consumer’s account in accordance with subsection (c), nor shall the financial institution be liable under subsection (e) if the written confirmation is not received within the ten-day period referred to in the previous sentence.

(c)Provisional recredit of consumer’s account

If a financial institution receives notice of an error in the manner and within the time period specified in subsection (a), it may, in lieu of the requirements of subsections (a) and (b), within ten business days after receiving such notice provisionally recredit the consumer’s account for the amount alleged to be in error, subject to section 1693g of this title, including interest where applicable, pending the conclusion of its investigation and its determination of whether an error has occurred. Such investigation shall be concluded not later than forty-five days after receipt of notice of the error. During the pendency of the investigation, the consumer shall have full use of the funds provisionally recredited.

(d)Absence of error; finding; explanation

If the financial institution determines after its investigation pursuant to subsection (a) or (c) that an error did not occur, it shall deliver or mail to the consumer an explanation of its findings within 3 business days after the conclusion of its investigation, and upon request of the consumer promptly deliver or mail to the consumer reproductions of all documents which the financial institution relied on to conclude that such error did not occur. The financial institution shall include notice of the right to request reproductions with the explanation of its findings.

(e)Treble damages

If in any action under section 1693m of this title, the court finds that—

(1)the financial institution did not provisionally recredit a consumer’s account within the ten-day period specified in subsection (c), and the financial institution (A) did not make a good faith investigation of the alleged error, or (B) did not have a reasonable basis for believing that the consumer’s account was not in error; or

(2)the financial institution knowingly and willfully concluded that the consumer’s account was not in error when such conclusion could not reasonably have been drawn from the evidence available to the financial institution at the time of its investigation,

then the consumer shall be entitled to treble damages determined under section 1693m(a)(1) 1 of this title.

(f)Acts constituting error

For the purpose of this section, an error consists of— (1)

(2)an incorrect electronic fund transfer from or to the consumer’s account;

(3)the omission from a periodic statement of an electronic fund transfer affecting the consumer’s account which should have been included;

(4)a computational error by the financial institution;

(5)the consumer’s receipt of an incorrect amount of money from an electronic terminal;

(6)a consumer’s request for additional information or clarification concerning an electronic fund transfer or any documentation required by this subchapter; or

(7)any other error described in regulations of the Bureau.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 1693m of this title, referred to in subsec. (e), was in the original a reference to section 915 of Pub. L. 90–321, and was translated as meaning section 916 of Pub. L. 90–321 to reflect the probable intent of Congress and the renumbering of section 915 of Pub. L. 90–321 as section 916 by Pub. L. 111–24, title IV, § 401(1), May 22, 2009, 123 Stat. 1751.

Amendments

2010—Subsec. (f)(7). Pub. L. 111–203 substituted “Bureau” for “Board”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2010 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 111–203 effective on the designated transfer date, see section 1100H of Pub. L. 111–203, set out as a note under section 552a of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

§1693f Error Resolution