State Senator Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) testifies on his Senate Joint Memorial 8005 (Image courtesy of TVW)
A measure to ask federal leaders to make it easier for businesses that wire money to work with banks is now before the State House.
The sponsor of Senate Joint Memorial 8005, Senator Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) describes a joint memorial as a “letter to Santa” with a wish list – in this case, asking Congress and the President for rules that will reduce the chances a bank will “de-risk” by denying bank accounts to money transmitters.
The banks do “de-risking” and won’t work with those smaller businesses over worries about the anti-money laundering law if money is sent to countries of concern, like those on terrorist watch lists or that are in the middle of a war.
Senator Hasegawa says it’s been a real problem, especially for immigrants and refugees who want to support families back home, “creating a lack of access to banking services for many immigrants and refugees,” Hasegawa says, “that a bank can arbitrarily decide whether or not they don’t want to take this particular risk.”
A joint memorial doesn’t require the Governor’s signature, but it does take a two-thirds vote of both houses. It already passed the Senate with that two-thirds margin. No one besides Senator Hasegawa testified on the measure, but of the people signed in, 3 were for it and 19 were against it.
You can watch the entire hearing on TVW here. This measure is heard at about the 29:50 mark. It’s due for a vote in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee either March 22nd or 24th.
