Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 1060, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to amend the escrow depository law to:

(2) Establish procedures for closing a branch office;

Testimony in support of this bill was received from the Division of Financial Institutions of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (Division).

Your Committee finds that confidential depository company applications and records are currently protected by administrative rule. By placing this protection in the Hawaii Revised Statutes, this bill will make the escrow depository law easier to find and understand. This measure also provides procedural guidance to escrow businesses that want to close a branch office and streamlines Division administration of the law, by standardizing voluntary escrow depository termination procedures with those that apply to other financial institutions regulated by the Division.

Your Committee has concerns regarding the new fee for a request to search, review, or segregate Division records based on the actual time spent at $40 per hour. Your Committee understands that these types of requests by the public are infrequent, but believes the fee may unduly restrict public access to government records.

For this reason, your Committee has amended this measure to remove the fee. Other technical, nonsubstantive amendments were made for style, clarity, and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1060, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1060, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.