Banks win 45-day hold on your deposits—regulators say it's fraud prevention.
H.R. 9331 — STOP Payments Fraud Act of 2026 · Filed by Young Kim (R-CA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 18, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill amends the Expedited Funds Availability Act to allow banks to hold checks and wire transfers longer when they suspect fraud, up to 10 days initially and 45 days extended. It also lets regulators temporarily suspend the normal fast-availability rules for certain check types during periods of high fraud losses, and requires banks to notify customers when funds are held on fraud suspicion. The bill aims to reduce check and wire fraud losses borne by banks and the Treasury, but gives banks broad discretion to delay customer access to deposited funds.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to exempt banks from the statutory obligation to make deposited funds available quickly, allowing them to hold customer money for up to 45 days during fraud investigations. This protects banks' balance sheets from fraud losses but imposes liquidity costs on depositors.
What the text implies
- The 'reasonable suspicion' standard is subjective and defined only as 'indicators that would lead a reasonable person to suspect fraud'—no objective threshold, creating risk of over-holding and inconsistent application across banks.
- Banks are permitted to communicate fraud holds to other banks without explicit customer consent, potentially flagging depositors as fraud-risk accounts across the financial system.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
depository institutions (banks and credit unions); the U.S. Treasury (reduced fraud losses on government checks)