Correctly stating APYs over the phone

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Question:

When orally quoting a deposit rates over the phone, if the APY is 3.00%, does the the employee need to state the APY as 3.00% or can they say the APY as 3%? Likewise if the APY was 3.50% do they need to say the APY is 3.50% or can they say the APY is 3.5%?

Answer:

by Randy Carey:

3.00% when recited orally is 3%. There is no requirement to disclose the APY out to two places orally.

Answer:

by Rebekah Leonard:

To play devil's advocate, years ago I had an examiner reference 1030.3(f):

"(f) Rounding and accuracy rules for rates and yields. (1) Rounding. The annual percentage yield, the annual percentage yield earned, and the interest rate shall be rounded to the nearest one-hundredth of one percentage point (.01%) and expressed to two decimal places. For account disclosures, the interest rate may be expressed to more than two decimal places."

The examiner said there is no regulatory distinction between written vs oral "expressions" and therefore oral APY quotes had to be stated out to two decimals.

That said, this is a pretty technical argument and a low risk issue.

Answer:

by Randy Carey:

Rebekah - You and I both know that you ran such a clean shop that when the examiners came, they had nothing better to do than to make up obscure rules so they could have something to put into their report smile