On May 18, 2016, the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, the National Credit Union Administration, the OCC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued interagency guidance regarding supervisory expectations on how financial institutions should handle consumer deposit discrepancies. In some instances, when a consumer makes a deposit, the sum the bank credits to the account may be different from the total amount deposited. These deposit discrepancies can occur if the amount written on a deposit slip does not match the cash transferred into the bank or as a result of encoding errors or a poor image capture by the bank when it scans or reads a deposit slip.
The interagency guidance calls on banks to avoid or reconcile, or resolve deposit discrepancies and to adopt policies that treat consumers fairly when they make deposits and do not violate laws and regulations that apply to deposit discrepancy practices. If a financial institution fails to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including prohibitions against unfair, deceptive and abusive practices, it could open itself up to liability and possible action by an agency.
The interagency guidance is available at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201605_cfpb_interagency-guidance-regarding-deposit-reconciliation-practices.pdf.
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