The Federal Reserve and Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection jointly issued a proposal last week that would make changes to Regulation CC, which implements the Expedited Funds Availability (EFA) Act. The proposal also provides an additional opportunity for public comment on certain amendments to Regulation CC that the Board proposed in 2011.

Specifically, the agencies are proposing to adjust the amount of funds depository institutions must make available to their customers/members for inflation. These amendments would apply in circumstances ranging from next business day withdrawal of certain check deposits to setting the threshold amount for determining whether an account has been repeatedly withdrawn.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires that the EFA Act's dollar amounts be inflation adjusted every five years by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). To help ensure that institutions have sufficient time to implement the adjustments, the agencies propose a compliance date that would be at least 12 months after publication of a final rule in the Federal Register.

The agencies also propose to implement in Regulation CC, EFA Act amendments made by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155), which include extending coverage of the EFA Act to American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

The agencies are providing an additional opportunity for public comment on certain funds-availability amendments in subpart B of Regulation CC that the Board published in 2011 regarding funds availability schedule provisions and associated definitions.

Although the agencies have not made a decision on whether to make any aspects of the 2011 proposal final, reopening the comment period will provide the agencies with up-to-date public views to consider.

Comments on the proposal will be due within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register, which is expected in the coming days.

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