By Smith                                              H.B. No. 1295
         76R4393 CLG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain property delivered to the comptroller on the
 1-3     presumption of owner abandonment.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 74, Property Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 74.510 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 74.510.  INTEREST PAYABLE ON CLAIM FOR ACCOUNT
 1-8     WRONGFULLY PRESUMED ABANDONED BY FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.  (a)  In
 1-9     this section:
1-10                 (1)  "Account" has the meaning assigned by Section
1-11     73.001.
1-12                 (2)  "Depository" means a financial institution
1-13     described by Section 73.002.
1-14           (b)  As soon as possible after the comptroller or a
1-15     depository pays a claim filed under this subchapter for money in an
1-16     account wrongfully presumed abandoned under Subchapter B, Chapter
1-17     73, the depository shall pay to the owner of the account interest
1-18     on the money accruing from the date interest was last credited to
1-19     the account or, if the account is not an interest-bearing account,
1-20     the date on which the property was delivered to the comptroller
1-21     until the date on which the claim is paid.
1-22           (c)  The amount of interest due under Subsection (b) is
1-23     computed  by multiplying the amount on which interest is payable by
1-24     the greater of the interest rate applicable to the account or the
 2-1     applicable federal funds rate and multiplying the product by the
 2-2     number of days for which interest is payable.  The applicable
 2-3     federal funds rate is the average of the federal funds rates
 2-4     published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for each of the
 2-5     days for which interest is payable divided by 360.  The federal
 2-6     funds rate for any day on which a published rate is not available
 2-7     is the same as the published rate for the next preceding day for
 2-8     which there is a published rate.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  Section 74.509, Property Code, is repealed.
2-10           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-11     applies only to a claim filed on or after that date.  A claim filed
2-12     before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in
2-13     effect at the time the claim was filed, and the former law is
2-14     continued in effect for that purpose.
2-15           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.