Does Regulation E protect my business if we wired money to a fraudster?

What does section 1005.3 say?

This part applies to any electronic fund transfer that authorizes a financial institution to debit or credit a consumer's account.

Wire or other similar transfers. Any transfer of funds through Fedwire or through a similar wire transfer system that is used primarily for transfers between financial institutions or between businesses.

What does that mean for my firm?

The consumer protections people hear about for a card or a personal account do not reach a business wire. Your agreement with your bank and section 4A-211 set what can be done.

Read your bank's wire agreement. It says how a cancellation must reach the bank and what a recall costs.

What can an outside reading tell you after a payment fraud?

An outside reading cannot see your mailboxes, so it cannot tell you whether someone signed in to one.

It can show three things that bear on how a fraud like this reaches a firm: whether your DMARC record tells mail servers to refuse mail forged in your name, which look-alike domains of yours are registered, and which addresses at your domain are listed in breach data from other services.

Where do I go next?

• Cancelling a wire: UCC 4A-211
• Truist
• The first hour, United States