Legislative Update with Jay Kruse

​It’s time to take a deep breath as we approach crossover in both North and South Dakota. Follow along with bills we are tracking. 

Good morning! It’s that time in the legislative session to take a deep breath. Our North Dakota credit union Field of Membership (FOM) bill SB 2266 passed through the State Senate and will move on to the House following crossover on February 24th. In South Dakota, we have officially passed the halfway point of the session, with crossover just three legislative days away.  

Remember, you can follow along with all the bills we are tracking in both states here: dakcu.org/bill-tracking
We have been talking a lot about our North Dakota FOM legislation lately, so I wanted to update you all on a couple bills we have been tracking and talking with legislators about in South Dakota:

HB 1193: An Act to amend provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).
This bill is sponsored by Representative Mike Stevens and Senator David Wheeler. As the title states, the bill amends the UCC providing updated rules for commercial transactions involving emerging technologies such as virtual currencies, distributed ledger technologies including blockchain, as well as adds a new article addressing certain types of digital assets. These amendments provide new default rules to govern transactions involving these new technologies. We are supportive of these efforts to make these much needed updates to our dated UCC.

This bill passed through the House Judiciary Committee 7-4 and the full House 49-17. It has been referred to the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee where it is currently awaiting a hearing date.

SD 208: An Act to require financial institutions to report exploitation of an elder or an adult with a disability.
This bill would have amended current code to require credit unions and other financial institutions who voluntarily or mandatorily report via a suspicious activity report (SAR), to also report the information contained in the SAR to the attorney general (AG).

Per FinCEN –Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies can access the Bank Secrecy Act data, including SARS, through a secure web connection after their agency has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with FinCEN. FinCEN provides training, and monitors use to ensure that the BSA information is properly used, disseminated, and kept secure. In short, the AG already has access to the SAR information this bill targets. The bills sponsor, Senator David Wheeler, has tabled the bill in committee this morning, effectively killing the bill, after hearing input from all sides. We appreciate Sen. Wheeler for starting the conversation, and we look forward to working with law enforcement on some educational opportunities in the future.

Don't hesitate to contact Jay Kruse with any advocacy questions or concerns.