The House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly approved a bill last week that would allow credit unions to provide check cashing and wire transfer services to non-members within their fields of membership.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) a key advocate of the bill, said the measure will expand these services to as many as 10 million Americans, most of them immigrants "who today have to rely on high-cost check cashing or remittance services." The provision would bring many of these so-called unbanked into the financial mainstream by also encouraging them to establish a credit union account, said Bachus. The bill will now go to the full House for a vote.
Even if the House passes the bill it is widely expected that lawmakers will eventually roll the measure into a broader regulatory relief package, such as the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, better know as CURIA.
