1-1     By:  Carona                                           S.B. No. 1055
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 9, 1999; March 10, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Economic Development;
 1-4     April 9, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 9, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1055                  By:  Carona
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the regulation and operation of credit unions.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Section 15.204, Finance Code, is
1-13     amended to read as follows:
1-14           (c)  In this section, "financial institution" includes an
1-15     institution such as a credit union, bank, savings bank, or savings
1-16     and loan association.
1-17           SECTION 2.  Chapter 121, Finance Code, is amended by adding
1-18     Section 121.0011 to read as follows:
1-19           Sec. 121.0011.  POLICY.  The purposes of this subtitle are to
1-20     safeguard the public interest, to promote public confidence in
1-21     credit unions doing business in this state, to provide for the
1-22     protection of the interests, shares, and deposits of credit unions,
1-23     to delegate to the department rulemaking and discretionary
1-24     authority that may be necessary to assure that credit unions
1-25     operating under this subtitle may be sufficiently flexible and
1-26     readily responsive to changes in economic conditions and practices,
1-27     to maintain sound credit union growth and financial integrity,
1-28     fiscal responsibility, and independent judgment in the management
1-29     of the business affairs of credit unions, to permit credit unions
1-30     to effectively provide a full array of financial and financially
1-31     related services, to provide effective supervision and regulation
1-32     of credit unions and their fields of membership, and to clarify and
1-33     modernize the law governing the credit unions doing business in
1-34     this state.  This subtitle is the public policy of this state and
1-35     necessary to the public welfare.
1-36           SECTION 3.  Section 123.003, Finance Code, is amended to read
1-37     as follows:
1-38           Sec. 123.003.  ENLARGEMENT OF POWERS.  A [Notwithstanding any
1-39     other law, the commission by rule may authorize a] credit union may
1-40     [to] engage in any activity in which it could engage, exercise any
1-41     power it could exercise, or make any loan or investment it could
1-42     make, if it were operating as a federal credit union.
1-43           SECTION 4.  Subsection (b), Section 125.301, Finance Code, is
1-44     amended to read as follows:
1-45           (b)  A credit union may rely on any information provided by
1-46     the trustee to determine whether a trust is revocable or
1-47     irrevocable.  [The name of each beneficiary must be disclosed to
1-48     the credit union when a trust account is opened.]
1-49           SECTION 5.  Section 125.503, Finance Code, is amended to read
1-50     as follows:
1-51           Sec. 125.503.  ACCESS BY MORE THAN ONE PERSON [JOINTLY HELD
1-52     SAFE DEPOSIT BOX].  (a)  In the absence of a contract to the
1-53     contrary, a [A] credit union shall allow each holder of a safe
1-54     deposit box jointly held in the name of two or more persons or a
1-55     person other than the lessee designated in the lease agreement:
1-56                 (1)  access to the box; and
1-57                 (2)  removal of its contents.
1-58           (b)  A credit union is not responsible for damage arising
1-59     because a holder or other designated person had access to the box
1-60     or removed its contents.
1-61           (c)  The death of a holder of a jointly held safe deposit box
1-62     does not affect the right of another holder or other designated
1-63     person [of the box] to have access to and remove contents from the
1-64     box.
 2-1           SECTION 6.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 7.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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