TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending April 29, 2005

HR 749 Expanded Access to Financial Services Act of 2005.

BRIEF

    The bill is a minor deregulation of credit unions that would allow them to reach out to non-members and benefit from the business of transferring some of the over $10 billion that is transferred yearly to Central and South America by natives of those continents working in the US.

   Check cashing and money transfer business could be extended to non-members who are in the same business as the credit union (CU) members (teachers, firefighters, local government workers, etcetera) but who are not yet members of the CU.

   Those defined as “un-banked” appear in the bill to be foreign workers who use various services to transfer funds back to Mexico or other Central and South American companies and the bill would allow credit unions to get in that game and compete with traditional banks and businesses that provide the service. The report notes that the cost of transferring money out of the country has been reduced by competition from 10 or 11 percent four years ago to 4 or 5 percent today.

Sponsor: Representative Jim Gerlach (R-PA-6^th)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote (April 26, 2005)

Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost.

## All Rights Reserved. © 2005 TheWeekInCongress.com No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.