SACRAMENTO, Calif.–A bill that was opposed by this state’s credit unions—which alleged it would have led to a spike in litigation—will not be advancing in California’s Assembly.
Senate Bill 278, which was sponsored by Bill Dodd (D-Napa) “would have greatly increased liability for credit unions and sparked a huge rise in litigation,” the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues said.
According to the leagues, overall, SB 278 would have made credit unions liable for elder financial abuse if they “should have known” fraud was occurring. The language in the bill would have carried forward a “devastating impact” for credit unions, with negative implications for their members who are seniors as well, the leagues said.
The league said as drafted, the bill applied to all transactions (containing personal liability for supervisors) and “had a completely unworkable safe harbor” that the league felt would lead to a rapid erosion of senior members’ relationships with their credit unions.
‘Upset Senior Members’
“Credit unions would have undoubtedly had some very upset senior members,” the league said.
The league noted credit unions had produced amendments they felt would lead to more prevention of fraud while not destroying the banking relationship between seniors and their credit unions.
“We want to thank everyone who attended our California Government Relations Rally earlier this year,” Diana Dykstra, president and CEO of the leagues, said in a statement. “We hope this encourages more credit union leaders to attend next year’s event as we steadily work to win over state legislators’ hearts and minds for the credit union cause.”
In addition to the effort put forward during GRR and continual lobbying efforts, the league also credited grassroots efforts, including nearly 1,800 messages that were sent to state senators over a period of a couple of weeks.
Hearing to be Held
The leagues said there will be an informational hearing on elder financial abuse in the autumn that could dictate the future of legislation on the topic.
The league added that SB 278 could still be heard next year in the California legislature.
It’s Called Fresh for a Reason. And We Offer Home Delivery. For Free!
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free in ’23! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com