SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Bankers Association successfully blocked a bill, SB 1292, that would have allowed state-chartered credit unions to cash checks and wire money for non-members in their field-of-membership and sell them money orders. The Assembly Banking and Finance Committee voted down the bill which was introduced by state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove) by a 4 to 3 vote – just three votes short of the number the bill needed to pass. The vote came during a hearing on the bill Monday evening, June 21. Commenting on the measure's defeat, California Credit Union League President/CEO David Chatfield said, "It's a shame that California's bankers have chosen to sacrifice the interests of 4.5 million Californians for the sake of their 50-year-old vendetta against credit unions. The bankers' actions ensure that a huge segment of the state's population will continue to go without traditional financial services like checking accounts, and will continue to pay exorbitant prices to cash paychecks and send money to their families." He added that, "Credit unions have volunteered to serve this group of Californians whom bankers have rejected as customers. Apparently, the California Bankers Association and the state's bankers have decided that their anti-credit union agenda is more important than helping these Californians emerge from a second-class financial system." According to the California Senate analysis of SB 1292, a disproportionate number of people who use check cashers and who pay bills with money orders because they don't have a checking account, are low-income and minority. CCUL said, "SB 1292 also aimed to move these Californians into traditional financial institutions by making them more comfortable doing business with them." -

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