Funds Availability: Regulation CC Holds, Exceptions, and Notices

Under the Regulation CC funds availability rules, a bank must let you use cash, direct deposits, wire transfers, and most government and bank-issued checks by the next business day after deposit. For a standard personal or business check, the first $275 has to be available the next business day and the rest by the second business day. Certain situations, spelled out in the rule itself, let a bank hold funds longer, sometimes up to nine business days.

Regulation CC is codified at 12 CFR Part 229 and applies to transaction accounts, which means the checking accounts people use for everyday spending. Savings accounts and certificates of deposit are not covered. The rule sets maximums: a bank can always release your money faster, but it cannot make you wait longer than the schedule below. The dollar thresholds are adjusted for inflation every five years, and the figures in this article took effect July 1, 2025.¹

Deposits That Must Be Available the Next Business Day

Some deposits are treated as low enough risk that the bank has to release them by the next business day:

Cash handed to a teller.²
Direct deposits, ACH transfers, and wire transfers.²
U.S. Treasury checks deposited into an account where you are a named payee.²
U.S. Postal Service money orders deposited in person into a payee’s account.²
Cashier’s, certified, and teller’s checks deposited in person into a payee’s account.³
State and local government checks, deposited in person into a payee’s account, at a bank in the same state that issued the check.³
On-us checks, meaning checks drawn on the same bank where you deposit them, as long as both branches sit in the same state or check processing region.²

Look at the recurring conditions. Most of these items require an in-person deposit to a bank employee, and most require deposit into an account belonging to the payee. Feed a cashier’s check into an ATM, or deposit it into someone else’s account, and the next-day rule may not apply.

The Standard Check Schedule

A regular personal or business check that doesn’t qualify for next-day treatment still has to move on a defined clock. The bank must release the first $275 by the next business day.⁴ The remaining balance must be available by the second business day after the deposit date.²

Business days under Regulation CC are Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. A check deposited Friday afternoon does not start its clock until Monday, so the $275 shows up Tuesday and the rest Wednesday. A Saturday-night ATM deposit is on the same footing. Depositing in person, early in the week, avoids most calendar surprises.

ATM and Mobile Deposits

Deposits at an ATM your bank owns generally follow the same schedule as an in-branch deposit. A Treasury check dropped into a proprietary ATM still gets next-day treatment when the account holder is a named payee.⁵

Deposits at an ATM your bank doesn’t own get slower treatment. The bank has up to five business days to release the funds, whether the deposit is cash or a check, and the $275 first-day release does not apply.⁵ If timing matters, use your own bank’s ATM or a teller.

Mobile deposits sit in a gray zone. Federal regulators have not squarely decided whether a check photo captured through a banking app is a deposit covered by Regulation CC’s availability schedules. In practice, most banks contractually commit to following those schedules for mobile deposits and describe the specific timing in the mobile deposit agreement you accepted when you enrolled. Read that agreement rather than assume the federal timeline applies automatically.

Exceptions That Let the Bank Hold Funds Longer

Regulation CC lists specific situations in which the bank can extend a hold past the standard schedule. These are the traps.

New Accounts

An account is considered new for the first 30 calendar days after opening. During that window, cash and electronic payments still get next-day availability. The first $6,725 of next-day-eligible checks (Treasury checks, cashier’s checks, and similar items) also follows the normal schedule. Anything above $6,725 from those check types, along with all other check deposits, can be held up to nine business days.⁶ If you already had an account at the same bank within the previous 30 days and it was open for at least 30 days, your new account doesn’t count as “new” for this rule.

Large Deposits

When check deposits in a single day total more than $6,725, the bank can place an extended hold on the portion above that threshold.⁷ The first $6,725 still moves on the standard two-day schedule.

Reasonable Doubt About Collectability

A bank can extend a hold when it has specific factual reasons to believe a check won’t be paid. Under the rule, valid reasons include a return notice from the paying bank, a stop-payment order, a stale check (more than six months old), a postdated check, or a reasonable belief the drawer is insolvent.⁵ A hunch isn’t enough, and the bank cannot hold a check simply because of the check type or the depositor’s demographic profile.

Redeposited Checks and Repeatedly Overdrawn Accounts

A check that bounced and is being deposited a second time qualifies for an extended hold. So do deposits into an account with a history of overdrafts. Regulation CC treats an account as repeatedly overdrawn if the balance went negative on six or more banking days in the last six months, or if the balance was negative by $6,725 or more on at least two banking days in that period.⁵ Once triggered, extended holds can apply for up to six months after the last qualifying overdraft.

Emergency Conditions

Natural disasters, communication failures, computer outages, and bank payment suspensions all count as emergency conditions that suspend the normal schedule. There is no fixed maximum hold during an emergency. The bank must release funds within a reasonable period after the emergency ends or by the standard deadline, whichever comes later.⁵

How Long an Exception Can Add

Outside of emergencies, the rule sets ceilings on the added wait. On-us checks can be held one extra business day. Standard checks that would normally follow the two-day schedule can be held up to five additional business days. Nonproprietary ATM deposits can be held up to six additional business days. If a bank claims it needs more time than these limits, it carries the burden of showing that the extension was reasonable.⁵

Available Funds Are Not the Same as Cleared Funds

This is where people get burned. When the bank releases funds under the Regulation CC schedule, you can withdraw the money, but the check itself may not yet have been paid by the other bank. Regulation CC preserves the bank’s right to reverse a provisional settlement and charge back your account if the check later bounces.⁵

That gap is the mechanism behind most fake-check scams. Someone sends you a cashier’s check for $3,000. Your bank makes the funds available on the standard schedule. You spend the money or wire part of it back. Two weeks later the check turns out to be counterfeit, the bank reverses the deposit, and you owe every dollar you already spent. The availability timeline tells you when you can access money, not when it is safe to treat that money as final. For any check from someone you don’t know well, waiting a full two weeks before treating the deposit as settled is the practical move.

What the Bank Has to Tell You

Whenever a bank invokes an exception hold, it has to notify you. The notice must state the reason for the hold and the specific date when the funds will become available. For an in-person teller deposit, the notice should be handed to you at that time. For an ATM or mobile deposit, the bank has until the end of the next business day to mail or electronically send the notice.⁵

If the hold is based on doubt about collectability, the notice must include the specific reason the bank believes the check may not be paid. A vague reference to “bank policy” is not enough. The bank must also keep a record of each notice and the facts behind its decision, so a paper trail exists if the hold is later challenged.⁵

If the Bank Breaks the Rule

If your bank holds funds longer than Regulation CC allows or skips the required notices, you have legal remedies. Under 12 CFR 229.21, the bank is liable for any actual damages plus statutory damages between $125 and $1,350 per individual action, and a court can award attorney fees and costs if you win.⁵ In class actions, statutory damages are capped at $672,950 or one percent of the bank’s net worth, whichever is less.¹

Before suing, consider filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees Regulation CC compliance for most banks and credit unions. The CFPB accepts complaints online and forwards them to the institution for a response. Filing creates a regulatory record even when your individual dispute resolves quickly, and repeated complaints against the same bank can trigger enforcement.

1
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC) Threshold Adjustments
2
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.10 – Next-Day Availability
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.10 – Next-Day Availability
4
Federal Reserve. A Guide to Regulation CC Compliance
5
eCFR. 12 CFR Part 229 – Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC)
6
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
7
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions