Funds Availability Disclosure Requirements: Contents and Hold Limits

Federal funds availability disclosure requirements come from Regulation CC, which implements the Expedited Funds Availability Act. Before you open a checking account or similar transaction account, the bank or credit union must hand you a written document explaining when deposits of each type will be available for withdrawal, how the bank defines the terms that control those timelines, and what circumstances can extend a hold. The dollar figures in the rule are adjusted periodically for inflation, with the current thresholds taking effect on July 21, 2025.

What the Written Disclosure Must Contain

The disclosure has to describe your bank’s funds availability policy as it applies in most situations. That means breaking deposits into categories (cash, electronic transfers, government checks, personal checks, and so on), giving the hold period for each, and explaining how to tell which category a specific deposit falls into. You shouldn’t have to guess whether a direct deposit and a personal check from a friend follow the same timeline.¹

Two defined terms have to appear because they control every hold calculation. A business day is any day except Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays. A banking day is any business day when the bank is open for substantially all of its operations. A bank that closes early on Friday may still count Friday as a banking day, and the distinction changes when the clock on your deposit starts.¹

Cutoff Hours

The disclosure also has to tell you the bank’s cutoff hour, because anything deposited after it counts as received on the next banking day. Federal rules set the earliest permissible cutoffs: no earlier than 2:00 p.m. for teller window or branch deposits, and no earlier than noon for deposits at ATMs, off-site facilities, and contractual branches. Banks can set later cutoffs but not earlier ones. Different locations and deposit channels at the same bank can carry different cutoffs, so a 12:30 p.m. ATM deposit may count as next-day even when a teller deposit at the same moment would not.²

When and How the Bank Has to Give It to You

You must get the full written disclosure before you open a new transaction account, so the policy is in front of you before you commit. For accounts opened by mail or online, the bank must mail the disclosure within a reasonable time after the account is established.³

The policy also has to stay visible in daily operations:

Every location where employees accept consumer deposits, including teller windows and drive-throughs, must display a conspicuous notice summarizing the availability policy.
Every ATM, whether the bank owns it or shares a network, must have a notice posted on or near the machine stating that deposited funds may not be available for immediate withdrawal.
The bank must provide a copy of the full disclosure to anyone who asks for one.³

Changes to the Policy

If the bank changes its availability policy in a way that slows your access to funds, it has to notify you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Changes that speed up access can be disclosed within 30 days after they happen. Advance warning is required only for changes that hurt you.³

Recordkeeping

Banks must retain evidence of compliance with these disclosure and availability requirements for at least two years. If the bank knows about an investigation, enforcement action, or lawsuit, it has to keep relevant records until the matter is resolved, even past the two-year window.⁴

The Hold Limits the Disclosure Has to Honor

Regulation CC caps how long your bank can make you wait, and the disclosure can promise access sooner but not later. The limits vary by deposit type and channel.

Next Business Day

The fastest category covers low-fraud deposits. By the business day after the banking day of deposit, your bank must make available:

Cash deposited in person to a bank employee
Electronic payments including direct deposit, ACH transfers, and wire transfers
U.S. Treasury checks deposited into an account held by the payee
State and local government checks, cashier’s checks, certified checks, and postal money orders, when deposited into the payee’s account in person
The first $275 of the total daily deposit of checks not otherwise entitled to next-day availability⁵

That last item is easy to miss. Even on a large personal check sitting under a multi-day hold, $275 has to be released the next business day.

Second Business Day

Cash deposited at a proprietary ATM (one your bank owns or operates) gets second-business-day availability instead of next-day. The same applies to government checks, cashier’s checks, and similar items when they’re not deposited in person to a teller. For ordinary personal and business checks deposited in person, the full amount must be available no later than the second business day after the banking day of deposit.⁶⁵

Non-Proprietary ATM Deposits

Deposits at an ATM your bank doesn’t own carry the longest standard hold: up to five business days, for both cash and checks. Depositing at a branch or at your own bank’s ATM makes a real difference if you need faster access.⁷

Exception Holds and the Separate Notice You Should Get

The disclosure describes the bank’s policy in most situations. Regulation CC also lets banks hold deposits longer in specific circumstances, extending the hold by up to five additional business days for most checks, and up to six additional business days for checks deposited at non-proprietary ATMs. Longer than that puts the burden on the bank to prove the period was reasonable.⁸

The recognized exceptions include:

New accounts, meaning the first 30 calendar days after opening. Cash and electronic deposits still get next-day availability, but check deposits follow standard schedules only for the first $6,725 on any single banking day; anything above $6,725 can be held until the ninth business day after deposit.
Large deposits in established accounts, where total checks deposited in a single day exceed $6,725. The bank must still follow the standard schedule for the first $6,725 and may extend the hold on the excess.
Repeatedly overdrawn accounts, defined as accounts with a negative balance (or one that would have been negative had items been paid) on six or more banking days in the previous six months.
Checks redeposited after being returned unpaid, and checks the bank has reasonable cause to believe are uncollectible. Reasonable cause requires specific facts that would convince a reasonable person; the bank cannot extend a hold just because a check belongs to a certain category or because of who you are, and it has to document its reasoning.
Emergency conditions such as communication or equipment failures, suspension of payments by another bank, war, or similar events beyond the bank’s control. The bank has to use reasonable diligence and release funds within a reasonable period after the emergency ends.⁸

Any time the bank invokes one of these exceptions, it has to give you a written notice containing your account number (or a shortened version), the deposit date, the dollar amount being held, the specific reason for the extended hold, and the date the funds will become available. That notice is your main tool for knowing what happened and when the money will land.⁹

Mobile Deposits

Snapping a photo of a check through your bank’s app has become the default for many people, and its regulatory treatment is less clear than in-person deposits. The CFPB has noted that banks may apply different timetables for mobile deposits and advises consumers to ask about those specific policies.¹⁰ Most banks spell out separate mobile-deposit hold terms in the mobile banking agreement you accepted when you enrolled, and those terms can impose longer holds than you’d see at a teller window. If speed matters, check whether the mobile deposit terms differ from the main availability disclosure; the answer is often inside the app’s terms of service.

Accounts These Rules Do Not Cover

Regulation CC applies only to transaction accounts, meaning accounts designed for payments or transfers, such as checking accounts, NOW accounts, and share draft accounts at credit unions. Savings accounts are excluded from the regulation’s definition of “account,” even if they permit some third-party transfers like bill payments. Time deposits and certificates of deposit are also excluded. For deposits into those accounts, the bank’s own policies control, and the federal availability schedules do not apply.¹¹

What to Do If the Bank Breaks the Rules

Regulation CC creates a private right of action, so you can sue the bank directly for failing to follow the availability schedules or the disclosure requirements. In an individual lawsuit, you can recover your actual damages (the money you lost because of an improper hold) plus an additional amount set by the court of no less than $125 and no more than $1,350. The court can also award attorney’s fees and court costs. In a class action, total recovery for the class is capped at the lesser of $672,950 or one percent of the bank’s net worth.¹²

You have one year from the violation to file suit, in any federal district court or other court with jurisdiction. The bank has a defense if it can prove the violation was unintentional and resulted from a genuine error, such as a computer glitch or printing mistake, and that it kept reasonable procedures in place to prevent such errors. A legal judgment call that turns out wrong does not qualify.⁴

Before suing, consider filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You can submit one online at consumerfinance.gov/complaint or by phone at (855) 411-2372. The CFPB forwards the complaint to the bank, which generally has 15 days to respond. Filing a complaint doesn’t waive your right to sue, and it creates a documented record of the problem.¹³

1
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.16 – Specific Availability Policy Disclosure
2
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.19 – Miscellaneous
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.18 – Additional Disclosure Requirements
4
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.21 – Civil Liability
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eCFR. 12 CFR 229.10 – Next-Day Availability
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eCFR. 12 CFR 229.12 – Availability Schedule
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eCFR. 12 CFR Part 229 – Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks
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eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
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eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
10
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Can a Bank or Credit Union Hold Funds I Deposited?
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eCFR. 12 CFR 229.2 – Definitions
12
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.21 – Civil Liability
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint