20 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019 GR SUMMIT Interim Study Committee Meetings Winding down for 2019 Dax Denton Senior Vice PresidentGovernment Relations Indiana Bankers Association ddenton@indianabankers.org @ibagovrelations Eric J. Augustus Vice President-Government Relations Indiana Bankers Association eaugustus@indianabankers.org The fall season brings to an end the annual interim study committee process that convenes every summer. The interim study committee process is critical for issues that the legislature might consider in the upcoming session. By assigning issue topics to interim study committees, the legislature gets a head start on considering potential changes in law in order to be better prepared to tackle important issues when session starts in January. There are dozens of interim study committees that could be charged with studying a variety of topics each summer. Through the course of summer meetings, these committees identify changes to the law that they deem appropriate through the committee deliberations. Each committee that convenes may choose to put forth a recommendation from the committee to the Indiana General Assembly, suggesting specific policy changes to be considered during the legislative session. A recommendation is generated only if a majority of the members of the interim committee vote to approve it. This past summer the IBA government relations team kept busy tracking multiple topics important to the banking industry. The Probate Code Study Commission considered a couple of legislative topics that would impact banks. The first, and most concerning, is a forced foreclosure proposal that would mandate that a mortgage holder file a mortgage foreclosure if requested by the heir of an estate, even if there is no delinquency in question. Such a statute would conflict with existing state and federal statutes, is unnecessary, unfairly harms the lender and would potentially violate the contract impairment clauses of the Indiana Constitution. The Indiana Bankers Association voiced concerns with this approach throughout the interim committee process. We also asked that the forced foreclosure language not be included in the committee’s recommendation. (As of this writing, there is still one more meeting of the Probate Code Study Commission, during which the commission will release its list of recommendations and take a vote on whether to approve those recommendations to be shared with the full Indiana General Assembly.) Another topic of note being considered by the Probate Code Study Commission is cleanup language to the legacy trust bill that passed earlier this year, SEA 265. Your IBA Government Relations Team worked to ensure that the technical changes being proposed will not alter the overall creditor safeguards that we advocated for in SEA 265, nor hinder the way legacy trusts can be used in accordance with that law. HEA 1136, which passed during this past year’s legislative session, included language asking the Indiana General Assembly to review the topic of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code during the interim. As a result, the Interim Study Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance was assigned the topic, and the committee conducted a hearing on the UCCC on Aug. 15. In anticipation of this conversation, the IBA assembled an advisory panel of bankers to provide feedback on the UCCC related to how it impacted the industry, and how it limited banks’ ability to lend to customers. Using feedback provided by the advisory panel, the IBA testified at the hearing about issues with the UCCC. Among the IBA recommendations were: consolidating mortgage lending provisions (HELOCs) under the existing statute that governs first-lien mortgages, and simplifying the UCCC provisions related to refunding interest and fees when a loan is paid off early. The committee included four of the five IBA-suggested changes to the UCCC in its final report,
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