(a) If mail, other than unclaimed mail, sent to a borrower is returned undelivered, an institution shall take steps to locate the borrower. These steps must include—

(1) Reviews of records in all appropriate institutional offices;

(2) Reviews of telephone directories or inquiries of information operators in the locale of the borrower's last known address; and

(3) If, after following the procedures in paragraph (a) of this section, an institution is still unable to locate a borrower, the institution may use the Internal Revenue Service skip-tracing service.

(b) If an institution is unable to locate a borrower by the means described in paragraph (a) of this section, it shall—

(1) Use its own personnel to attempt to locate the borrower, employing and documenting efforts comparable to commonly accepted commercial skip-tracing practices; or

(2) Refer the account to a firm that provides commercial skip-tracing services.

(c) If the institution acquires the borrower's address or telephone number through the efforts described in this section, it shall use that new information to continue its efforts to collect on that borrower's account in accordance with the requirements of this subpart.

(d) If the institution is unable to locate the borrower after following the procedures in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section, the institution shall make reasonable attempts to locate the borrower at least twice a year until—

(1) The loan is recovered through litigation;

(2) The account is assigned to the United States; or

(3) The account is written off under § 674.47(g).

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 424, 1087cc) [52 FR 45555, Nov. 30, 1987, as amended at 59 FR 61412, Nov. 30, 1994]