By Driver                                       H.B. No. 3168

      75R6824 CLG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to requiring a financial institution to maintain certain

 1-3     information from a business account holder.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Title 16, Revised Statutes, is amended by adding

 1-6     Article 353 to read as follows:

 1-7           Art. 353.  BUSINESS CHECKING ACCOUNTS

 1-8           Sec. 1.  DEFINITIONS.  In this article:

 1-9                 (1)  "Business" means a legal entity, including a

1-10     corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship, that is formed

1-11     for the purpose of making a profit.

1-12                 (2)  "Business checking account" means an account at a

1-13     financial institution from which withdrawals may be made by a

1-14     business by check or draft.  The term includes a money market

1-15     account, a negotiable order of withdrawal account, or other account

1-16     at a financial institution in which the account holder has check

1-17     writing privileges.

1-18                 (3)  "Financial institution" means a state or national

1-19     bank, state or federal savings and loan association, state or

1-20     federal savings bank, or state or federal credit union doing

1-21     business in this state.

1-22           Sec. 2.  ACCOUNT INFORMATION REQUIRED.  (a)  A financial

1-23     institution shall require, as a condition of opening or maintaining

1-24     a business checking account, that the applicant or account holder

 2-1     provide:

 2-2                 (1)  if the business is a sole proprietorship:

 2-3                       (A)  the name of the business owner;

 2-4                       (B)  the address of the business;

 2-5                       (C)  the home address of the business owner; and

 2-6                       (D)  the driver's license number of the business

 2-7     owner or the personal identification card number issued to the

 2-8     business owner by the Department of Public Safety; or

 2-9                 (2)  if the business is a corporation or other legal

2-10     entity, a copy of the business's articles of incorporation or a

2-11     comparable document or an assumed name certificate.

2-12           (b)  The financial institution shall annually update the

2-13     information the institution is required to obtain under Subsection

2-14     (a) of this section.

2-15           Sec. 3.  DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.  A financial institution

2-16     shall provide the information described by Section 2 of this

2-17     article on request to a person to whom the financial institution

2-18     has returned a dishonored check or draft that was issued to the

2-19     person by a business that maintains a business checking account

2-20     with the financial institution.

2-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

2-22     applies to a business checking account held by a financial

2-23     institution on or after that date, regardless of the date on which

2-24     the account was opened.

2-25           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-26     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-27     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 3-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 3-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.