§ 668.166 Excess cash.

(a) General. The Secretary considers excess cash to be any amount of title IV, HEA program funds, other than Federal Perkins Loan program funds, that an institution does not disburse to students by the end of the third business day following the date the institution—

(1) Received those funds from the Secretary; or

(2) Deposited or transferred to its depository account previously disbursed title IV, HEA program funds, such as those resulting from award adjustments, recoveries, or cancellations.

(b) Excess cash tolerance. An institution may maintain for up to seven days an amount of excess cash that does not exceed one percent of the total amount of funds the institution drew down in the prior award year. The institution must return immediately to the Secretary any amount of excess cash over the one-percent tolerance and any amount of excess cash remaining in its account after the seven-day tolerance period.

(c) Consequences for maintaining excess cash. Upon a finding that an institution maintained excess cash for any amount or time over that allowed in the tolerance provisions in paragraph (b) of this section, the actions the Secretary may take include, but are not limited to—

(1) Requiring the institution to reimburse the Secretary for the costs the Federal government incurred in providing that excess cash to the institution; and

(2) Providing funds to the institution under the reimbursement payment method or heightened cash monitoring payment method described in § 668.162(c) and (d), respectively.

[80 FR 67194, Oct. 30, 2015, as amended at 81 FR 20251, Apr. 7, 2016]