Legislative Update

April 15, 2002          A review of current developments from the Georgia Bankers Association

www.gabankers.com
Legislature Adjourns The General Assembly adjourned late Friday afternoon thus ending one of the longest sessions in history.  The General Assembly meets 40 legislative days each year and a vote of both the House and Senate determines which calendar days will count as legislative days.  The long wait for the federal court ruling on the Senate redistricting was blamed for the lengthy session.  Once the court ruled, final action was quickly taken on changes to the Senate districts to accommodate the court’s concerns.  A number of bills were enacted as the session drew to a close such as changes in the natural gas deregulation structure passed several years ago and a final budget for the state.  We will be mailing a complete wrap-up of all the banking-related bills which were passed this year on Friday of this week.  The electronic version of that publication will be emailed to the bankers on our email distribution list as well.

Compromise Predatory Lending Bill Passes

One of the last bills to pass this session was the conference committee version of the Governor’s predatory lending bill, H.B. 1361.  The members of the Conference Committee were Representatives Butch Parrish, Tracy Stallings and Charlie Smith and Senators Don Cheeks, Steve Thompson and Vincent Fort.  They met several times during the week to resolve differences between the House- and Senate-passed bills.  Several provisions important to House members were kept in the bill while the only substantive change in the Senate bill was removed.  The House insisted on compromises eliminating judicial foreclosure as the only option on high-cost loans, reducing the statute of limitations, reducing the time for rescinding a high-cost loan and treating brokers’ pass through fees the same as pass-through fees of lenders.  The Senate agreed to remove provisions in their version creating a new state education council which would have met monthly to discuss predatory lending and hold hearings each year throughout the state.  It appears the final version of the bill still will not apply to most loans made by our members which was GBA’s goal throughout the process.  Our thanks go especially to House Banks and Banking Committee Chairman Butch Parrish for his untiring efforts to ensure a balanced bill was passed.  Last year, Senate Banking and Finance Committee Chairman Don Cheeks also worked successfully to get a balanced bill passed by the Senate.  GBA will be doing an analysis of the bill and will hopefully be able to include that analysis with the Legislative Update being emailed Friday.  Contact GBA’s Joe Brannen with questions.


Parrish

ID Theft Bill Passes House Committee S.B. 475 by Senators Thompson, Stokes and Tanksley.  The bill requires businesses that maintain records with individual’s personal identifying information to properly dispose of those records.  Under the bill, financial institutions are required to comply with the provisions of the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. 


Thompson

3-Year Rule S.B. 532 by Senators Jackson, Tanksley, Smith, Stokes, Stephens and Golden.  The bill reduces from five years to three years the time a bank had to have been continuously operating before it could be acquired. 


Jackson

UCC 9 & UCC 5 H.B. 1253 by Representative Robert Reichert and others.  The bill cleans up language from the UCC 9 bill passed last session and calls for the adoption of the newly revised Article 5 dealing with Letters of Credit.


Reichert

Liens/Plats Central Index H.B. 1582 by Representatives Walker, Dix, Squires and Bordeaux.  Creates a central indexing system for liens and plats maintained by the Superior Court Clerk’s Cooperative Authority.


Walker

Housekeeping Bill S.B. 353 by Senators Cheeks, Cagle, Crotts and Stokes.  The bill allows the assessment of fees via ACH and allows the Department to share examination information with other regulators of new services banks are offering.


Cheeks

GBA Keeps You Informed

GBA’s Legislative Update was published regularly throughout the session to keep you apprised of the bills that the GBA was tracking on the industry’s behalf.  On Fridays that the Update was not mailed, GBA’s LegisFAX was sent via fax to all CEO’s and those interested in tracking issues on a weekly basis. The electronic version of both the Legislative Update and the LegisFAX were sent by e-mail to those on our e-mail list.  The ‘State Issues’ section of GBA Online, GBA’s home page, is linked to the website maintained by the General Assembly and assures that you will have the latest version of any bill which was tracked by the GBA.

GBA’s Lobbyists at the Capitol

The lobbying team for the GBA was at the Capitol full-time throughout the session.  If you need to speak with them about any issues addressed, send an email through the links below or call them on their direct lines.

Joe Brannen, Direct phone, (404) 420-2026
Elizabeth Way, Direct phone, (404) 420-2027
Don Browne, Direct phone, (404) 522-1501

State Legislative Issues l Georgia House of Representatives l Georgia Senate l Governor

Federal Legislative Issues l Georgia Members of Congress