Alabama House passes bill requiring data collection on international wire transfers

Yahoo

06-05-2025

Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale (left) speaks with Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill (right) on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 8, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House passed Fidler's bill that requires data to be collected on international wire transfers exceeding $1,000 last week.(Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would require wire transfer companies to collect data on some international wire transfers exceeding $1,000.
HB 297, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill, is what remains of a bill that would have taxed international wire transfers, often used by immigrants to send money home to families.
As filed, Fidler's bill would have subjected all international wire transfers to a 4% tax. A House Financial Services Committee substitute changed that.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The bill requires data to be collected and stored on 'suspicious' international wire transfers of $2,000 or more, and for the data to be stored for five years. The bill requires all transfers exceeding $1,000 to be recorded. Fidler said $2,000 being transferred internationally is suspicious, but the bill does not define suspicious transactions.
'The wire transfer companies will determine what suspicious is. The Securities Commission that regulates all these transactions, they're the ones that are keeping an eye on it,' Fidler said.
Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Smiths Station, said in the Committee on April 23 that the substitute removes the 4% per transaction tax that the legislation originally imposed.
'Instead of a fee or a tax, it would now turn into a fine on any guilty findings they come up with,' Blackshear said at the committee meeting.
The fines would be collected by the Alabama Securities Commission. The proceeds would go to the Sheriffs' Advancement in Education, Technology, and Training Fund, according to the Legislative Services Agency. The bill's fiscal note says each civil penalty can generate up to $5,000 for the fund.
Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, said during debate on the House floor last week that the current political climate made her concerned about the intentions of the legislation.
'My rationale is because of the climate that we're living in now that I would not want somebody falsely accused of something,' Moore said. 'People are being falsely arrested and everything else and once it happens they have no way out when they are innocent.'
Moore said that parents could be sending money to a child that is studying abroad, not just immigrants with families abroad.
'If you've got a child living overseas going to school and every week you transfer them $1,000, that's going to look suspicious,' Moore said.
Fidler said that the transaction would just have to be recorded and kept for five years.
The legislation requires the commission to record data on multiple transactions of $15,000 or more between the same people. The commission must also record all transactions of more than $1,000. The legislation makes evading recording the data a Class C felony on first offense and a Class B felony on multiple offenses; punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, and up to 20 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, respectively.
Fidler's bill effectively replaced similar legislation filed by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, which would have imposed a $7.50 fee on money sent overseas and a 1.5% fee on transfers over $500. The bill was held because the Constitution requires the legislation to start in the House.
The bill passed 83-2 with 15 abstentions. It goes to the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee, which had not posted an agenda as of early Monday afternoon. There are three days left in the 2025 session.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE