By: Carona S.B. No. 1055
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the regulation and operation of credit unions.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Subsection (c), Section 15.204, Finance Code, is
1-4 amended to read as follows:
1-5 (c) In this section, "financial institution" includes an
1-6 institution such as a credit union, bank, savings bank, or savings
1-7 and loan association.
1-8 SECTION 2. Chapter 121, Finance Code, is amended by adding
1-9 Section 121.0011 to read as follows:
1-10 Sec. 121.0011. POLICY. The purposes of this subtitle are to
1-11 safeguard the public interest, to promote public confidence in
1-12 credit unions doing business in this state, to provide for the
1-13 protection of the interests, shares, and deposits of credit unions,
1-14 to delegate to the department rulemaking and discretionary
1-15 authority that may be necessary to assure that credit unions
1-16 operating under this subtitle may be sufficiently flexible and
1-17 readily responsive to changes in economic conditions and practices,
1-18 to maintain sound credit union growth and financial integrity,
1-19 fiscal responsibility, and independent judgment in the management
1-20 of the business affairs of credit unions, to permit credit unions
1-21 to effectively provide a full array of financial and financially
1-22 related services, to provide effective supervision and regulation
1-23 of credit unions and their fields of membership, and to clarify and
1-24 modernize the law governing the credit unions doing business in
2-1 this state. This subtitle is the public policy of this state and
2-2 necessary to the public welfare.
2-3 SECTION 3. Section 123.003, Finance Code, is amended to read
2-4 as follows:
2-5 Sec. 123.003. ENLARGEMENT OF POWERS. A [Notwithstanding any
2-6 other law, the commission by rule may authorize a] credit union may
2-7 [to] engage in any activity in which it could engage, exercise any
2-8 power it could exercise, or make any loan or investment it could
2-9 make, if it were operating as a federal credit union.
2-10 SECTION 4. Subsection (b), Section 125.301, Finance Code, is
2-11 amended to read as follows:
2-12 (b) A credit union may rely on any information provided by
2-13 the trustee to determine whether a trust is revocable or
2-14 irrevocable. [The name of each beneficiary must be disclosed to
2-15 the credit union when a trust account is opened.]
2-16 SECTION 5. Section 125.503, Finance Code, is amended to read
2-17 as follows:
2-18 Sec. 125.503. ACCESS BY MORE THAN ONE PERSON [JOINTLY HELD
2-19 SAFE DEPOSIT BOX]. (a) In the absence of a contract to the
2-20 contrary, a [A] credit union shall allow each holder of a safe
2-21 deposit box jointly held in the name of two or more persons or a
2-22 person other than the lessee designated in the lease agreement:
2-23 (1) access to the box; and
2-24 (2) removal of its contents.
2-25 (b) A credit union is not responsible for damage arising
2-26 because a holder or other designated person had access to the box
3-1 or removed its contents.
3-2 (c) The death of a holder of a jointly held safe deposit box
3-3 does not affect the right of another holder or other designated
3-4 person [of the box] to have access to and remove contents from the
3-5 box.
3-6 SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-7 SECTION 7. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.