Fed Approves Online Bank Account Statements

The monthly account statement you receive from your bank could become paperless under a plan approved by the Federal Reserve.

The central bank voted 5 to 0 Wednesday to adopt a rule allowing banks, thrifts and credit unions to provide account statements online to customers, with their consent.

The Fed also voted to seek public comment on a proposal to allow banks and other financial institutions to electronically disclose required information to customers.

The plan would allow the institutions to electronically deliver disclosures required by federal law regarding equal credit opportunity, electronic fund transfers, truth in lending and other subjects.

The disclosures could be sent to consumers’ e-mail addresses or posted on a financial institution’s Web site. In the latter case, the institution would have to send a notice alerting consumers that the information had been posted.

Disclosures still would have to be made on paper when customers transacted business in person, such as in mortgage loan closings and car loans and leases.