Newsroom

May 18, 2016

CFPB, NCUA issue guidance on deposit discrepancies

CFPB, NCUA and three other agencies issued guidance Wednesday on how to handle consumer deposit discrepancies in the event of a deposit slip error or encoding error.

The guidance says financial institutions should avoid, reconcile or resolve discrepancies and adopt policies that treat consumers fairly after inadvertent errors that do not violate the law. Errors can also occur due to poor image capture when a financial institution reads or scans a deposit slip.

"Consumers should not be denied timely access to the full amount of their deposits," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "Today's guidance should make it clear that we expect financial institutions to take steps to handle and resolve deposit discrepancies and avoid consumer harm."

NCUA also noted the guidance in a Letter to Credit Unions on Wednesday.

The other agencies behind the interagency guidance were the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In its release, CFPB cited the joint action it took with the OCC and FDIC against Citizens Bank, N.A., after it failed to credit consumers for the full amount of their deposited funds. The consent order required the bank to pay $11 million to consumers and $7.5 million as a penalty.