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               ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6171

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State of Washington      53rd Legislature     1994 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Labor & Commerce (originally sponsored by Senators Vognild, Loveland, Ludwig, Franklin and Hargrove)

Read first time 01/31/94.

Cashing government issued checks and warrants.

    AN ACT Relating to the cashing of government issued checks or warrants; amending RCW 39.58.108; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 39.58.108 and 1984 c 177 s 17 are each amended to read as follows:

    Any financial institution may become a qualified depositary upon approval by the commission and segregation of collateral in the manner as set forth in this chapter, and upon compliance with all rules as promulgated by the commission.  Until such time as depositaries have submitted four consecutive reports to the commission as required by RCW 39.58.100, they shall at all times pledge and segregate eligible securities in an amount equal to not less than ten percent of all public funds on deposit in said depositary.

In order to be a qualified public depositary, a financial institution must cash, upon presentation of reasonable identification, checks and warrants issued by Washington state, and checks and warrants issued by the federal government, for noncustomers who are the original payees for no fee or for a fee that does not exceed one dollar.  No financial institution shall be liable for a loss incurred as the result of a wrongful payment of any Washington state check or warrant cashed pursuant to this section, if the financial institution cashed the check or warrant based upon the required reasonable identification.

As used in this section, "reasonable identification" means a valid current pictured Washington state driver's license or a valid current pictured identification card issued by Washington state, and any one of the following valid pieces of identification:

(1) Employment photo identification card;

(2) Military or dependent military identification badge or card;

(3) School student body identification card;

(4) Credit card; or

(5) United States passport.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  Financial institutions, the department of social and health services, office of special investigations and the department of motor vehicles shall jointly evaluate cost effective methods, including fingerprinting, which reduce fraudulent cashing of government checks and warrants.  The department of social and health services shall call the group together and ensure that the report and proposed legislation is reported to the appropriate standing committees of the legislature by December 30, 1994.

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