CBA’s state advocacy is multi-faceted. We are the only banking trade association in California with a full-time state legislative advocacy team dedicated to protecting our members’ interests. We are in the capitol every day talking with legislators, key staff, policy committee consultants, regulators and executives in the governor’s office. We submit comment letters and deliver testimony on measures that our members have identified as priorities. We build coalitions with other entities that share our view.
California joins 40 other states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico by enacting CBA-sponsored AB 1858, which requires the use of a person’s name as it appears on his or her driver’s license or DMV-issued personal identification card on UCC financing statements. Under existing practices, various versions of a debtor’s name could be listed on different financing statements, making it difficult for creditors to ascertain the existence or priority of statements a debtor or the subject property.
Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1522, which requires all California employers to provide paid sick days to any employee who works 30 hours or more in a year, at a rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked. Sick leave taken must be paid at the employee’s normal rate earned during regular work hours. See CBA’s Regulatory Compliance Bulletin for more information.
A new bill, SB 898, allows banks to divulge to the State Treasurer’s Office certain information related to accounts held by state agencies and departments. The purpose of the bill is to help the treasurer’s office to monitor state monies not deposited within the centralized state treasury system. See CBA’s Regulatory Compliance Bulletin for more information.
AB 1770 seeks to address situations where a lender fails to close a HELOC prior to close of escrow, which may result in the innocent buyer and new lender inheriting the underlying loan and lien. The bill creates a new form “Borrower’s Instruction to Suspend and Close Equity Line of Credit” that, when signed by the borrower and delivered to the lender, instructs the lender to suspend the line of credit for at least 30 days. If the borrower also satisfies the payoff demand, then the lender must close the line and release or reconvey the property.
A California appellate court found an employer liable to pay the reasonable costs of its employees’ cell phone bills if use of their phones was necessary to discharge their duties. This outcome does not depend on whether an employee’s phone plan includes limited or unlimited minutes. The case, Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service Inc., was a class action suit. See CBA’s Regulatory Compliance Bulletin for more information.
Last week CBA reported on the enactment of our sponsored measure Assembly Bill 1393, which extends important tax relief on the forgiveness of mortgage debt by conforming California law to federal law for the 2013 tax year. Please see CBA’s analysis of the bill for more information.
The California State Small Business Credit Initiative still had 69 percent of its current funding disbursement available for small business lending and investment through Dec. 31 2013, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s quarterly SSBCI report. Nationally, the SSBCI program has disbursed $1 billion of the total SSBCI allocation to participating states since the program began in 2010. The new report also found that states accelerated their use of SSBCI funds in 2013, more than doubling the amount reaching small businesses or investment funds.
