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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	January 23, 2013 10:58 AM
From:	Senator John H. Eichelberger, Jr.
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Eichelberger-Uniform Commercial Code//Remittance Transfers

This week, I plan to introduce legislation to amend Title 13, the PA Commercial Code, to clarify that non-electronic “remittance transfers” continue to be subject to Article 4A of Pennsylvania’s Commercial Code. Consumers transfer tens of billions of dollars from the United States to foreign countries each year. Many people use the word remittance to refer to when they send money from the United States to other countries. Sometimes, Remittance transfers may be referred to informally as “international wires,” “international money transfers,” or “remittances.” Prior to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, these international money transfers were generally excluded from existing federal consumer protection regulations. However, the Act expanded the Federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act to now cover “remittance transfers.” The inadvertent effect of this was to blur the rules pertaining to non-electronic transfers. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, established by the Dodd-Frank Act to promulgate rules to carry out the federal laws, has suggested that states amend Article 4A in the manner provided by this bill to address this problem and preserve current law governing non-electronic remittance transfers. The bill provides that Division 4A of Title 13, i.e., Article 4-A of the PA Uniform Commercial Code governing funds transfers, continues to apply to non-electronic 'remittance transfers," defined as transactions wherein funds are sent by a person in the United States to a person in a foreign country. Under the bill, electronic remittance transfers (i.e., the transfer is not via check, draft or other paper instrument, but is a transfer of funds electronically), are subject to the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act. The bill further provides that if there is an inconsistency between Division 4A and the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the federal act applies.

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