Jan. 28, 2011

Legislature Gets in Full Swing

Returning from a recess longer than it planned because of the ice and snow storm, the General Assembly got into full swing this week. Individual legislators started dropping bills and conversations began on concepts we can expect to see later in bill form.

House and Senate Banking Committees Organize

Both the House Banks and Banking Committee and the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee met this week to introduce new leadership and newly appointed members and adopt rules. The House committee leadership is Greg Morris  (R-Vidalia), Chairman; Michael Harden (R-Toccoa), Vice Chairman; and Randy Nix, LaGrange, Secretary. The senate leadership is Jack Murphy (R-Cumming), Chairman; Jim Butterworth (R-Cornelia), Vice Chairman; and Jesse Stone (R-Waynesboro), Secretary. Click here for lists of the full house and senate committees.
 

Morris	Harden	Nix	Murphy	Butterworth	Stone

Bills of Interest This Week

This week, we’ve added the following bills to our online tracking list. We trust you’ll watch that page on our web site for bills important to you. Please take a look at these bills and let Elizabeth Chandler, 404.420.2027 know if you have any questions or concerns

• Obligations to Pay Attorney Fees. HB 64 by Rep. Jacobs (R-Atlanta) relates to the validity and enforcement of obligations to pay attorney's fees upon notes or other evidence of indebtedness to remove specific percentages based on amount of the indebtedness (currently 15 percent of the first $500 of principal and interest owing and 10 percent in excess of $500) and replaces that with a fee that would be an amount found by the court to be reasonable and necessary for asserting the rights of the aggrieved party.

• Certificate of Insurance. HB 66 by Rep. Maxwell (R-Dallas) creates a new process for the Insurance Commissioner to create or approve forms to be used to provide evidence of an insurance policy being in existence on a date certain.

• Garnishment Period. SB 11 by Sen. Seay (D-Riverdale) extends the period of continuing garnishment from between 179 to 539 days or 195 to 559 days depending on the type of garnishment.

Banking Department to Propose Special Rules

GBA has been told the Department of Banking and Finance plans to propose new rules addressing concerns we’ve raised with the Department. First, a rule will be proposed that will remove wording in Rule 80-1-5-.01 that appears to be inconsistent with provisions added in 2010 to O.C.G.A. Section 7-1-285(c)(9), which provided legal lending limit relief for renewal of loans that become nonconforming due to a decline in bank capital. The proposed rule change would eliminate language that appears to require that original loan documents allow for extensions and renewals. The second rule will eliminate the requirement in Rule 80-1-10-.09(4) that caps the carry value of ORE at the bank's actual investment in the foreclosed property in order to provide consistency with the fair value treatment under GAAP. Since this original rule was adopted GAAP has been changed to allow new valuations to be used in the calculation. Both of these rule changes are significant to the industry and your customers to help restore stability, and we appreciate the Department’s willingness to update their rules.

GBA at the Capitol
Stay tuned and follow our updates on the GBA’s State Issues Page on our website as it’s updated daily. If you Tweet – follow us on Twitter – we’ll be Tweeting significant events as they occur. GBA will be well-represented again this year at the Capitol with Elizabeth Chandler, GBA’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations, coordinating our lobbying efforts. With questions about the session, bills of interest or anything related to the process, just give her a call at 404.420.2027.