Committee advances Department of Banking and Finance annual housekeeping bill

The Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on an undated meeting heard a presentation from Beau Fears of the Department of Banking and Finance on an annual housekeeping bill intended to streamline statutes and ease regulatory burdens on financial institutions while maintaining safety and soundness.

Fears said the bill makes a range of technical changes: it updates provisions for formation of de novo banks, aligns the definition of a bank subsidiary with bank-holding-company rules, expands credit-union fields of membership to include limited liability companies and clarifies who may call special meetings, and adjusts mortgage licensing exemptions for certain securitizations and loans held in trust.

Among the most concrete changes described, Fears said the bill raises the dollar threshold used to combine secured and unsecured loans for legal-lending limits at credit unions from $50,000 to $150,000 to help smaller credit unions—an adjustment he said would affect roughly five credit unions in the state with less than $20 million in assets.

Committee members asked for clarification about the lending-limit change and other technical points. After discussion the chair called for a motion to move the bill do pass; committee members verbally affirmed support and the bill was advanced out of committee.

The committee clerk indicated the working document was LC550142. Fears noted the bill had passed the House unanimously and that he had not received opposition. The committee did not set a specific enforcement date during the hearing.

The committee adjourned after concluding business.