1030.3 General disclosure requirements.

OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION OF SECTION

Section 1030.3--General Disclosure Requirements

(a) Form.

1. Design requirements. Disclosures must be presented in a format that allows consumers to readily understand the terms of their account. Institutions are not required to use a particular type size or typeface, nor are institutions required to state any term more conspicuously than any other term. Disclosures may be made:

i. In any order.

ii. In combination with other disclosures or account terms.

iii. In combination with disclosures for other types of accounts, as long as it is clear to consumers which disclosures apply to their account.

iv. On more than one page and on the front and reverse sides.

v. By using inserts to a document or filling in blanks.

vi. On more than one document, as long as the documents are provided at the same time.

2. Consistent terminology. Institutions must use consistent terminology to describe terms or features required to be disclosed. For example, if an institution describes a monthly fee (regardless of account activity) as a “monthly service fee” in account-opening disclosures, the periodic statement and change-in-term notices must use the same terminology so that consumers can readily identify the fee.

(b) General.

1. Specificity of legal obligation. Institutions may refer to the calendar month or to roughly equivalent intervals during a calendar year as a “month.”

(c) Relation to Regulation E.

1. General rule. Compliance with Regulation E (12 CFR Part 1005) is deemed to satisfy the disclosure requirements of this part, such as when:

i. An institution changes a term that triggers a notice under Regulation E, and uses the timing and disclosure rules of Regulation E for sending change-in-term notices.

ii. Consumers add an ATM access feature to an account, and the institution provides disclosures pursuant to Regulation E, including disclosure of fees (see 12 CFR 1005.7.)

iii. An institution complying with the timing rules of Regulation E discloses at the same time fees for electronic services (such as for balance inquiry fees at ATMs) required to be disclosed by this part but not by Regulation E.

iv. An institution relies on Regulation E's rules regarding disclosure of limitations on the frequency and amount of electronic fund transfers, including security-related exceptions. But any limitations on “intra-institutional transfers” to or from the consumer's other accounts during a given time period must be disclosed, even though intra-institutional transfers are exempt from Regulation E.

(e) Oral response to inquiries.

1. Application of rule. Institutions are not required to provide rate information orally.

2. Relation to advertising. The advertising rules do not cover an oral response to a question about rates.

3. Existing accounts. This paragraph does not apply to oral responses about rate information for existing accounts. For example, if a consumer holding a one-year certificate of deposit (CD) requests interest rate information about the CD during the term, the institution need not disclose the annual percentage yield.

(f) Rounding and accuracy rules for rates and yields

(f)(1) Rounding.

1. Permissible rounding. Examples of permissible rounding are an annual percentage yield calculated to be 5.644%, rounded down and disclosed as 5.64%; 5.645% rounded up and disclosed as 5.65%.

(f)(2) Accuracy.

1. Annual percentage yield and annual percentage yield earned. The tolerance for annual percentage yield and annual percentage yield earned calculations is designed to accommodate inadvertent errors. Institutions may not purposely incorporate the tolerance into their calculation of yields.