Deposit Products and Services
The deposit compliance stack
Deposit questions almost always reduce to one test: which regulation owns this fact pattern?
Truth in Savings / Reg DD governs rates and fees on consumer deposit accounts. The advertised yield must be the annual percentage yield, calculated with compounding and stated more conspicuously than any other rate. Tiered accounts require a separate APY for each tier; bonus offers require the amount, the conditions, the minimum balance, and the deadline.
Reg CC governs funds availability: next-day items, case-by-case and exception holds, and indexed dollar thresholds that are adjusted periodically, so learn the mechanism rather than a memorized figure.
Reg E governs electronic transfers: the $50, $500, and unlimited liability tiers, provisional credit, the 45-day investigation window, and the requirement that consumers opt in before an institution may charge overdraft fees on ATM and one-time debit card transactions.
Insurance and ownership: FDIC coverage is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. Joint, POD, trust, and retirement accounts are counted separately.
Traps
- Confusing the nominal interest rate with the APY.
- Advertising no fees when a monthly maintenance fee is waived only by balance.
- Treating the old Reg D six-transfer limit as a legal requirement; the Board removed it in 2020, but institutions may still impose contractual limits.
- Mishandling a verbal Reg E notice by failing to send written confirmation instructions.
Rule of thumb
Convert every quoted rate to an APY before you evaluate it: monthly compounding at 5.00% yields (1 + 0.05/12)^12 - 1 = 5.116%, so an ad promising 5.00% APY on that account understates the true yield and must be corrected.