By Marchant                                           H.B. No. 3512
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the regulation and operations of credit unions.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 15.204(c), Finance Code, is amended to
 1-5     read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 15.204.  QUALIFICATIONS OF PUBLIC COMMISSION MEMBERS
 1-7           (c)  In this section, "financial institutions" includes an
 1-8     institution such as a credit union, bank, savings bank, or savings
 1-9     and loan association.
1-10           SECTION 2.  Chapter 121, Finance Code, is amended by adding
1-11     Section 121.0015:
1-12           Sec. 121.0015  PURPOSES.  The purposes of the legislation
1-13     enacting this Act are to safeguard the public interest, to promote
1-14     public confidence in credit unions doing business in this state, to
1-15     provide for the protection of the interests, shares, and deposits
1-16     of credit unions, to delegate to the department rulemaking and
1-17     discretionary authority that may be necessary to assure that credit
1-18     unions operating under this Act may be sufficiently flexible and
1-19     readily responsive to changes in economic conditions and practices,
1-20     to maintain sound credit union growth and financial integrity,
1-21     fiscal responsibility, and independent judgment in the management
 2-1     of the business affairs of credit unions, to permit credit unions
 2-2     to effectively provide a full array of financial and
 2-3     financially-related services, to provide effective supervision and
 2-4     regulation of credit unions and their fields of membership, and to
 2-5     clarify and modernize the law governing the credit unions doing
 2-6     business in this state.  Therefore, this Act is declared to be the
 2-7     public policy of this state and necessary to the public welfare.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  Section 123.003, Finance Code, is amended to read
 2-9     as follows:
2-10           Sec. 123.003.  ENLARGEMENT OF POWERS.  [Notwithstanding any
2-11     other law, the commission by rule may authorize a] A credit union
2-12     [to] may engage in any activity in which it could engage, exercise
2-13     any power it could exercise, or make any loan or investment it
2-14     could make, if it were operating as a federal credit union.
2-15           SECTION 4.  Section 125.301, Finance Code, is amended to read
2-16     as follows:
2-17           Sec. 125.301.  FORM OF PAYMENT.  (a)  A credit union may
2-18     receive payments on shares or accept deposits in the name of any
2-19     trustee:
2-20                 (1)  for a revocable trust, if:
2-21           a person who established the trust is a member of the credit
2-22     union; or
2-23           a trustee or beneficiary is a member of the credit union; or
2-24                 (2)  for an irrevocable trust if a person who
2-25     established the trust, trustee, or beneficiary is a member of the
 3-1     credit union.
 3-2           (b)  A credit union may rely on any information provided by
 3-3     the trustee to determine whether a trust is revocable or
 3-4     irrevocable [The name of each beneficiary must be disclosed to the
 3-5     credit union when a trust account is opened].
 3-6           SECTION 5.  Section 125.503, Finance Code, is amended as
 3-7     follows:
 3-8           Sec. 125.503.  ACCESS BY MORE THAN ONE PERSON [JOINTLY HELD
 3-9     SAFE DEPOSIT BOX].  (a)  In the absence of a contract to the
3-10     contract, a [A] credit union shall allow each holder of a safe
3-11     deposit box jointly held in the name of two or more persons or a
3-12     person other than the lessee designated in the lease agreement:
3-13                 (1)  access to the box; and
3-14                 (2)  removal of its contents.
3-15           (b)  A credit union is not responsible for damage arising
3-16     because a holder or other designated person had access to the box
3-17     or removed its content.
3-18           (c)  The death of a holder of a jointly held safe deposit box
3-19     does not affect the right of another holder or other designated
3-20     person [of the box] to have access to and remove contents from the
3-21     box.
3-22           SECTION 6.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-23           SECTION 7.  The importance of this legislation and the
3-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-25     emergency and an imperative that the constitutional rule requiring
 4-1     bills to be read on three several days in each house be suspended,
 4-2     and this rule is hereby suspended.