Regulation E error-resolution deadlines

A Regulation E dispute runs on a clock, and the clock is the part consumers most often need and least often find stated plainly. This page sets out each deadline in §1005.11 — who it binds, when it starts, what has to happen before it expires, and what a consumer can do when the bank lets it pass. The substantive rules behind the deadlines — what counts as an unauthorized transfer, the liability caps, which accounts are covered — are in Regulation E: fraud rights and deadlines, and the channel-by-channel dispute mechanics are in how to dispute a fraudulent transaction.

One distinction governs the whole timetable: some periods are counted in business days and some in calendar days. A business day is a day the bank is open for substantially all of its banking functions, so weekends and federal holidays do not count toward a ten-business-day period but every day counts toward a forty-five-calendar-day one. Ten business days from a Friday notice is typically two full weeks later.

The deadlines

Day 1 to day 10: notice and provisional credit

The clock starts when the bank receives notice, and notice can be oral. A telephone call to the fraud line is legally sufficient; the bank may require written confirmation within ten business days, but only if it told the consumer of that requirement and gave an address to send it to. A bank that refuses to open a dispute until a form arrives, without having imposed that condition properly, has already begun the ten-business-day period.

Within ten business days the bank must do one of two things: finish the investigation and tell the consumer the outcome, or provisionally credit the disputed amount and take up to the extended period to finish. Provisional credit is not a favour and not a settlement — it is the price of the extension, and the funds must be usable by the consumer while the investigation continues. If the consumer was asked for written confirmation and has not sent it, the bank may withhold provisional credit, which is the one common and lawful reason for the credit not to appear.

Day 10 to day 45 or 90: the extended investigation

The extension is available only where the bank has issued provisional credit. Forty-five calendar days is the standard outer limit. Ninety applies in three situations: the transfer was initiated outside the United States, it was a point-of-sale debit-card transaction, or the account had been open for thirty days or fewer when the transfer occurred. A dispute over an ordinary online or ACH debit on an established account does not get ninety days.

There is no further extension. An investigation still open on day 46 of an ordinary domestic dispute is late, whatever the bank's queue looks like — a point worth stating plainly, because "the investigation is ongoing" is often offered as though the period were open-ended. It is not.

Closing the dispute

When the bank concludes there was an error, it must correct it within one business day and tell the consumer within three business days. When it concludes there was no error, it must send a written explanation, tell the consumer that the provisional credit will be reversed and on what date, and give at least five business days' notice before the debit lands. The notice must also tell the consumer of the right to ask for the documents the bank relied on — and that request is worth making, because it is the only way to see whether the investigation examined anything specific to the transaction or simply matched a device identifier.

The bank must also honour transactions that would not have overdrawn the account had the provisional credit stayed in place, for five business days after the reversal notice. This is the provision that keeps a reversed credit from cascading into overdraft fees.

What to do when a deadline passes

1. Write it down. A one-paragraph letter or secure message with the date notice was given, the date the deadline fell, the section (§1005.11(c) for the investigation periods, §1005.11(d) for the reversal notice), and what is being asked for. Written complaints move differently from telephone calls inside a bank because they enter the complaint record an examiner can read.
2. Ask for the documents. If the dispute was denied, request the material the bank relied on. A denial supported by nothing but "the transaction used the correct PIN" often does not survive a second look.
3. Escalate outside the bank. A complaint to the CFPB or the bank's prudential regulator produces a substantive response within a defined timetable. Bank supervisors treat error-resolution timing as a compliance metric, and a documented missed deadline is not something an institution wants sitting in its complaint file.
4. Consider the statutory remedy. EFTA §1693m provides for actual damages, statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 in an individual action, and costs and attorney's fees for a prevailing consumer. Small-claims court is a realistic venue for a modest disputed amount.

Limits and uncertainty

These deadlines apply to consumer asset accounts covered by Regulation E at institutions subject to it. They do not apply to credit-card disputes, which run on the Regulation Z billing-error timetable, to wire transfers under UCC Article 4A, or to business accounts. A transfer the consumer authorised — the growing category of scams where the victim is induced to send the money themselves — is generally not an "unauthorized" transfer under §1005.2(m), so the error-resolution clock never starts; that boundary is contested, has been the subject of CFPB attention and of litigation involving bank-operated person-to-person networks, and is the area of Regulation E most likely to change. The day counts themselves have been stable since the rule's adoption and are not expected to move.