By Ellis S.B. No. 1501 75R6898 PB-D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to certain requirements for escrow accounts maintained in 1-3 conjunction with title insurance policies. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Chapter 9, Insurance Code, is amended by adding 1-6 Article 9.60 to read as follows: 1-7 Art. 9.60. LIMITATION ON BENEFITS RECEIVED FROM FINANCIAL 1-8 INSTITUTIONS. (a) A title insurance company or other person 1-9 regulated under this chapter that maintains in a financial 1-10 institution an escrow account in conjunction with a policy of title 1-11 insurance insuring an owner or mortgagee of real property may not 1-12 accept anything of value from the financial institution, including 1-13 a waiver of service fees or other charges, offered by the financial 1-14 institution as an inducement to maintain the account at that 1-15 institution. 1-16 (b) The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to 1-17 implement this article. 1-18 (c) In this article, "financial institution" means a state 1-19 or national bank, a state or federal savings and loan association, 1-20 a state or federal savings bank, a state or federal credit union, 1-21 or other bank or analogous institution in which an escrow account 1-22 may be maintained. 1-23 SECTION 2. Article 9.60, Insurance Code, as added by this 1-24 Act, applies only to an escrow account established in conjunction 2-1 with a title insurance policy that is delivered, issued for 2-2 delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 1998. An account 2-3 maintained in conjunction with a policy that is delivered, issued 2-4 for delivery, or renewed before January 1, 1998, is governed by the 2-5 law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this 2-6 Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose. 2-7 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997. 2-8 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.