Mohamed v. Bank of America, N.A.
The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) requires financial institutions to timely resolve errors in consumer accounts. 15 U.S.C. § 1693f. Regulation E, which implements EFTA, defines the scope of a covered “account” to include “a prepaid account,” and one type of prepaid account is a “government benefit account.” 12 C.F.R. § 1005.2(b)(3)(i)(B). Regulation E also contains certain exclusions from the definition of a prepaid account, but those exclusions do not apply to a prepaid account that is a government benefit account. 12 C.F.R. § 1005.2(b)(3)(ii).
The Bureau filed an amicus brief arguing that, under EFTA and Regulation E, a covered account includes a prepaid account such as a government benefit account, and one example of a government benefit account is a prepaid account loaded with unemployment assistance related to the pandemic. The brief also argues that, under Regulation E’s plain text, a government benefit account is not subject to the prepaid account exclusions, so upon determining an account is a government benefit account, no further analysis is needed to conclude that the account is a covered account.