What Is Regulation CC (Expedited Funds Availability Act)?

Regulation CC is the federal rule under the Expedited Funds Availability Act that caps how long a bank can hold your deposit before you can spend the money. It sets day-by-day deadlines for when cash, checks, and electronic payments must become available in a checking account, and it forces banks to disclose their hold policies in writing. First enacted in 1987, it is the reason a paycheck deposited today does not sit frozen for a week.

Which Accounts Are Covered

The availability deadlines apply only to transaction accounts, which in practice means checking accounts and similar accounts built for frequent withdrawals and payments.¹ Savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit fall outside Subpart B, so if you deposit a check into savings, none of the day-count rules below bind the bank. Everything that follows assumes the money is going into a checking account.

Deposits That Must Clear by the Next Business Day

Some deposits get the fastest treatment. Cash handed to a teller must be available no later than the next business day, and electronic payments such as wire transfers and ACH credits follow the same rule.² A business day excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays, so cash deposited Friday afternoon after the bank’s cutoff would not count as received until Monday, with funds available Tuesday.

Government checks also get next-business-day availability when deposited into an account held by the payee. That includes U.S. Treasury checks, U.S. Postal Service money orders, and checks drawn on a Federal Reserve Bank or Federal Home Loan Bank. Cashier’s checks, certified checks, and state or local government checks get the same treatment when deposited in person with a bank employee.³

For any other check, the bank must still release at least $275 by the first business day after deposit.¹ That $275 threshold rose from $225 on July 1, 2025, under the inflation-indexing the statute requires.⁴

Standard Hold Schedule for Checks

Past the next-day items and the $275 floor, the rest of a check deposit follows a straightforward timeline: funds must be available by the second business day after the banking day of deposit.⁵ The old split between “local” and “nonlocal” checks stopped mattering in 2010, when the Federal Reserve consolidated check processing into a single region. All checks now run on the same two-day clock.

One wrinkle applies when you want the money as physical cash rather than through a check or electronic payment. The bank can extend the hold by one additional business day, but at least $550 must be available for cash withdrawal by 5 PM on the day the check would otherwise clear. That $550 comes on top of the $275 released the day before, so you get access to at least $825 before the full amount posts.³

The clock only starts on the next banking day if you deposit after the bank’s posted cutoff. Most banks set that cutoff at 2 PM or later for in-person deposits and noon or later for ATM and off-premise deposits.⁶

Exception Holds That Extend the Timeline

Banks can push past the standard schedule when specific risk factors are present. The regulation calls these exceptions, and each one lets the bank tack additional business days onto the normal hold.

Large Deposits

When the total value of checks deposited on a single banking day exceeds $6,725, the bank can place an extended hold on the portion above that threshold. The first $6,725 follows normal availability; only the excess gets delayed.⁴ That threshold was $5,525 before the July 2025 adjustment.

New Accounts

An account counts as new for the first 30 calendar days after it is opened. During that window, most check deposits can be held longer than usual. Cash, electronic payments, and the first $6,725 of Treasury checks, Postal Service money orders, cashier’s checks, and similar government-backed items deposited in person still follow next-day rules. Anything above $6,725 from those check types can be held until the ninth business day after deposit.¹

Repeated Overdrafts

If your account has been overdrawn on six or more banking days in the past six months, the bank can suspend normal availability rules entirely for up to six months. The same applies if the account was overdrawn by $6,725 or more on at least two banking days during that period.⁷ This is one of the harshest exceptions because it applies to every deposit, not just the one that triggered the flag.

Reasonable Cause to Doubt Collectibility

A bank can extend a hold if it has a genuine, fact-based reason to believe the check will not clear. The reason cannot rest on the type of check or the type of person depositing it. The bank needs specific facts, such as information that the check writer’s account has been closed or that the check is postdated, and it must document the reasoning in the written hold notice it sends you.⁸ If the bank skips the written notice and later charges overdraft or returned-check fees that would not have hit without the hold, it cannot collect those fees unless the deposited check actually bounced.

Redeposited Checks and Emergency Conditions

Checks that were previously returned unpaid and are being deposited a second time can be held longer, since the first failure signals elevated risk. During emergencies such as natural disasters or communication system failures, banks also have flexibility to extend holds.⁷

How Long an Exception Hold Can Last

The regulation treats “reasonable” as up to five additional business days for most checks and up to six additional business days for deposits at nonproprietary ATMs. A bank can argue that a longer hold was reasonable, but it carries the burden of proving it.¹ In practice, a check that would normally clear on the second business day can be held for up to seven business days total when an exception applies.

ATM and Mobile Deposits

Where you deposit changes the schedule. At your own bank’s ATM, a “proprietary” machine, standard availability applies just as it would at the teller window. At a nonproprietary ATM, meaning any machine not owned or operated by your bank, funds do not have to be available until the fifth business day after the banking day of deposit.³ That five-day window covers every type of deposit at those third-party machines, including cash and government checks that would otherwise get next-day availability. Your bank’s disclosure should explain how to tell one type of ATM from the other.⁹

Depositing a check through your banking app falls under what the regulation calls remote deposit capture. When you photograph a check, the bank converts it to an electronic image and is treated as a “truncating bank” because the original paper never enters the collection system.¹ The two-business-day rule and the $275 first-day minimum both apply to mobile deposits. Banks often release the funds faster than required, but they can also apply exception holds for the same reasons they would on any other check.

What Your Bank Must Disclose

The regulation stacks several disclosure requirements so you are not caught off guard by a hold. Before you open an account, the bank must give you a written policy explaining when deposited funds will be available. It has to be grouped in one place and written in plain language.¹⁰

Banks also have to post their availability schedules at every location where employees accept deposits and at every ATM that takes deposits. Pre-printed deposit slips must include a notice that funds may not be available immediately.¹¹ If the bank changes its policy in a way that slows access, it must notify you at least 30 days before the change. Changes that speed things up can be disclosed after the fact.

When the bank applies an exception hold to a specific deposit, it owes you a written notice of exception listing the deposit date, the amount held, the reason for the exception, and the date funds will be available.⁸ For in-person deposits, that notice should be handed to you at the counter. If the bank learns the facts triggering the exception later, it must mail or deliver the notice no later than the first business day after it becomes aware.

What To Do When a Bank Breaks the Rules

A bank that fails to follow the availability or disclosure requirements faces civil liability. You can sue for actual damages caused by the violation, plus statutory damages of $125 to $1,350 per individual action. In a class action, total recovery 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 date to file, and you can bring the case in federal district court or any other court with jurisdiction.¹

If you would rather not go to court, file a complaint with the federal agency that supervises your bank. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau handles complaints about large banks; the OCC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, and National Credit Union Administration each oversee different types of institutions. The FFIEC’s Consumer Help Center can direct you to the right agency if you are not sure which one regulates yours.

1
eCFR. 12 CFR Part 229 – Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC)
2
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.10 – Next-Day Availability
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.12 – Availability Schedule
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC) Threshold Adjustments
5
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.12 – Availability Schedule
6
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.19 – Miscellaneous
7
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
8
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
9
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.16 – Specific Availability Policy Disclosure
10
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.15 – General Disclosure Requirements
11
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.18 – Additional Disclosure Requirements
12
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.21 – Civil Liability