Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
The 1st Session of the 60th State Legislature has been completed and we are finally able to look back at everything that happened this year.
Like I say every year, each session is different in its own special way. This year was no different as we got to experience things I’ve never had the opportunity to do in my 26 years of working with the legislature.
When session started back in February, we were tracking over 300 bills. By the time the dust settled, we had only a handful of bills we were tracking. Most were never heard or fell to their death because of legislative deadlines. We fought like crazy for the first two months to make sure the ones that would have a negative impact on your bank died, and once we got all those out of the way, we could spend our efforts on the bills that we wanted passed.
There were two bills that occupied all our efforts towards the end: SB 988 and SB 1083. One of these wasn’t that much of an issue, but the other was a roller-coaster ride that went into the last hours of session.
We’ve talked about SB 988 as it has been a work in progress for several years. This bill would move all EFS filings from the Oklahoma secretary of state’s office to central filing in Oklahoma County. There was never any opposition to this bill as all the parties who would be impacted worked closely together to make sure everyone was happy.
Almost all bills passed and signed by the Governor have an effective date; this is the date that the new law goes into effect. SB 988 doesn’t have a specific date that it will go into effect, but the reason for this is, as part of the process of moving from the secretary of state’s office to Oklahoma County, the central filings office must become certified by the USDA. We have no idea how long that process will take – it might be two months or it might be two years.
Once Oklahoma County has received its certification, SB 988 won’t go into effect for another 180 days. Having that six-month buffer will allow us and other interested parties to beta test and do everything else needed to be done to make it a smooth transition.
I don’t want anyone to panic thinking that everything related to the EFS is going to change. The change will be where you file, and that’s it.
We’ll keep you posted on everything and make sure you are aware of when Oklahoma Country receives its certification and the 180 days countdown clock has started.
While SB 988 went smoothly through the process, I can’t say the same for SB 1083.
We have referred to SB 1083 all year as the Crypto/ digital asset kiosk bill. Currently from what can track, there are over 900 of these money transmitters in Oklahoma. Currently, there are no laws or regulations on the state or federal level that regulate these machines. These kiosks can be used for fraud. A scammer could convince a victim to deposit money into a kiosk to buy cryptocurrency, but the purchase is made into the scammer’s crypto wallet where it is gone forever.
The elderly have been particularly victimized by such scams.
The kiosks can also be used to launder cash. Cash is deposited and converted into untraceable cryptocurrency without the anti-money laundering filings that would have been triggered if the cash had been deposited into a bank.
SB 1083 requires:
Kiosk operators must register as money transmitters with the State Banking Department and provide a list of their kiosks.
The attorney general is authorized to file criminal charges against any unlicensed kiosk operator and may direct the seizure of any kiosks being operated by an unlicensed operator.
For new customers, defined as someone who has been registered with a particular operator for no more than 72 hours, the operator must provide a full refund for any fraudulent losses.
For a new customer, a daily transaction limit of $2,000 applies.
For all customers, the operator must refund all fees it receives from a fraudulent transaction.
In the case of an unlicensed kiosk operator, the customer has a private cause of action for any fraud losses sustained by the customer.
Very specific warnings of the potential for fraud must be provided conspicuously to the customer and the customer must consent to proceeding with the customer.
A receipt containing detailed information about the transaction must be provided in paper form or the kiosk operator must provide conspicuous notice to the customer about how to contact the kiosk operator to receive a copy of the receipt.
Kiosk operators are required to adhere to certain fraud detection and prevention standards.
Fees that may be charged for transaction is capped.
As you can see, this bill is incredibly important in protecting all your customers. It slowly but surely worked its way through that legislative process and was ultimately passed by the legislature and sent to the governor for his approval on May 19.
We felt good the governor would sign this bill, realizing how important it is to protecting all Oklahomans, especially our most vulnerable.
Well, we were wrong.
Gov. Stitt didn’t see the bill the same way we did. On the night of May 24, we received the governor’s veto message. His official message was as follows:
Pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 11 of Article VI of the Oklahoma Constitution, I have vetoed Enrolled Senate Bill 1083. This legislation more closely aligns with the regulatory state in California and New York than a free market state like Oklahoma. Not only that, it creates yet another license. Cryptocurrency ATMs should be regulated in the same manner as regular ATMs – a simple registration form and fee. Pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 11 of Article VI of the Oklahoma Constitution, I have vetoed Enrolled Senate Bill 1083.
I could do an entire article on why I disagree with the governor, but we’ll save that for another time.
After we received his veto message all the folks involved with this bill started to work. We only had one goal: A veto override on the governor.
To have a successful override, you must get at least two-thirds of both the House and the Senate to vote again for approval of the bill.
We knew we wouldn’t have any issues in the House as the bill originally passed 84-2. The Senate was going to be the issue as the bill only passed 28-15 there. So, we knew we had to flip several senators to get the number we needed.
After 36 hours of meetings and lots of conversations in the hallway, we were successful in the Senate and had officially overridden the governor: SB 1083 will officially become law on Nov. 1, 2025.
SB 1083 was a prime example of what can be accomplished when groups work together. This was a joint-effort between the AARP, the State Banking Department and the OBA. I also want to thank Scott Thompson, the OBA’s general counsel, as he ran lead on this bill and worked closely with the State Banking Department to hammer out all the details.
Now that session is officially over, we can look back and say that it was a good year. We didn’t get everything that we wanted, but we didn’t get hurt and that’s always a win in my book.