CS/HB 1277 Summary

• Prohibits money services businesses, authorized vendors, and affiliated parties from knowingly possessing fraudulent identification paraphernalia used to misrepresent customer identity, and prohibits third parties from providing customer personal identification information to licensees.

• Requires licensees to maintain federally insured depository accounts and deposit all cashed payment instruments into their own accounts; failure to maintain such accounts constitutes grounds for license suspension and triggers notification requirements.

• Revises Office of Financial Regulation examination frequency to at least once every 5 years for existing licensees, with 15 days' notice required unless violation is suspected, and allows examinations without advance notice when violations are suspected.

• Restricts licensees from accepting or cashing payment instruments from non-original payees except for corporate payment instruments from authorized officers, and caps verification fees at $5.

• Modifies record-keeping requirements for check cashers cashing instruments exceeding $1,000 to include customer identification copies, thumbprints, and electronic payment logs with daily aggregation of multiple instruments.

• Takes effect July 1, 2012.