public-service · international money transfer disclosures
What Regulation E Requires Before a Covered International Money Transfer
12 CFR 1005.31 requires a pre-payment disclosure and a post-payment receipt with specific cost and rights information for covered transfers.
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What matters now
- Regulation E requires a separate pre-payment disclosure and a post-payment receipt for covered money transfers.
- The pre-payment disclosure shows the transfer amount, fees, taxes, total cost, exchange rate, and the amount the recipient will receive.
- The receipt must repeat the pre-payment figures and add delivery timing, recipient contact details, and rights information.
- This article does not say which international transfers are covered by 1005.31's applicability rules.
Under 12 CFR § 1005.31 — the section of Regulation E titled “§ 1005.31 Disclosures” — a covered money-transfer provider must give a consumer two separate disclosures: a “Pre-payment disclosure” before the consumer pays for the transfer, and a “Receipt” afterward (12 CFR § 1005.31).
The pre-payment disclosure states the transfer amount, fees, taxes, total cost, exchange rate, and the amount the recipient will receive; the receipt repeats those same figures and adds delivery timing, recipient contact information, and a statement of the consumer’s rights (12 CFR § 1005.31).
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- A covered provider must give a pre-payment disclosure before payment and a receipt afterward (12 CFR § 1005.31).
- The pre-payment disclosure includes the transfer amount, fees, taxes, total cost, exchange rate, and recipient amount (12 CFR § 1005.31).
- The receipt includes the pre-payment figures and adds the recipient-availability date, contact information, and the stated consumer rights (12 CFR § 1005.31).
- The current text of the rule reflects amendments recorded in the Federal Register at “[77 FR 6285, Feb. 7, 2012, as amended at 77 FR 50282, Aug. 20, 2012; 77 FR 30703, May 22, 2013]” (12 CFR § 1005.31).
The pre-payment disclosure
Before a covered consumer pays for a remittance transfer, § 1005.31 requires the provider to give a “Pre-payment disclosure” (12 CFR § 1005.31).
It sets out the amount being sent, the fees the provider charges, any taxes collected, the total amount the consumer will pay, the exchange rate applied, the amount the recipient will receive in the recipient’s currency, any fees imposed by third parties covered by the rule, and the total amount that will reach the recipient (12 CFR § 1005.31).
The post-payment receipt
Once the consumer has paid for the transfer, the provider must give a “Receipt” (12 CFR § 1005.31). The rule ties the receipt directly back to the pre-payment disclosure: it must include “the disclosures described in paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (viii) of this section,” meaning the same cost, exchange-rate, and recipient-amount figures the consumer already saw before paying (12 CFR § 1005.31).
The receipt is required to add information the pre-payment disclosure does not carry: the date the transferred funds will be available to the recipient, contact information for the recipient, a statement of the consumer’s error-resolution and cancellation rights, the provider’s own contact information, and contact information for the relevant consumer regulatory agency (12 CFR § 1005.31).
Why two separate documents
The pre-payment disclosure and receipt are separate required documents under the section.
The rule’s cross-reference from the receipt back to “paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (viii)” (12 CFR § 1005.31) requires the receipt to include those listed pre-payment disclosures.
What this article does not answer
This article describes only the content the disclosure rule at § 1005.31 requires once it applies. It does not settle which individual transfers are covered by that duty in the first place, and it does not identify any exception or condition outside this section.