The House Industry, Business and Labor Committee took testimony on House Bill 1149, which would update North Dakota’s Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUPA) with six technical and operational changes including new rules for virtual currency, record retention for voluntary disclosure, and a provision to permit direct mailing of certain property to owners when states’ records match.

Representative Lawrence Killemin, chairman of the North Dakota Commission on Uniform State Laws, introduced the bill and said it implements a ULC‑drafted update to keep state law aligned with evolving property types and recordkeeping. Susan Summerfeld, director of the Unclaimed Property Division in the Department of Trust Lands, summarized the proposed changes and asked the committee to pass the bill.

Summerfeld said the bill adds a specific dormancy period and definition for virtual currency, and asks holders to liquidate virtual currency and remit U.S. dollars because the state cannot hold virtual currency in native form. “Most of the states are looking at this,” she said, and the majority require delivery in dollars, she testified. The draft also adds abandoned‑vehicle excess proceeds and tax‑lien overages to the statute to align state code with other laws and clarifies record retention for voluntary disclosure (self‑audit) programs.

Section 50 of the bill would allow the division to send payments directly to owners when tax‑department or other records provide a “perfect match,” shortening the claims process for straightforward cases. Section 52 strengthens requirements for intercepting property to satisfy enforceable debt by requiring a judgment and execution before the division can intercept property for non‑state creditors. Summerfeld also proposed removing a burdensome record‑sharing requirement during multistate audits to make third‑party examinations more efficient.

Committee members asked questions about the scope of “virtual currency” (Summerfeld said the statute defines it and staff will submit a clarifying amendment to require remittance in U.S. dollars), the practicalities of liquidation and custodial holding, and potential information‑sharing with foreign jurisdictions. Summerfeld said the unclaimed property division has not handled foreign examinations to date and would need to evaluate that question.

Representatives of the banking industry supported the bill as preserving uniformity across jurisdictions. Rick Klaburg, president and CEO of the North Dakota Bankers Association, said his members favor the uniformity and that national banks appreciate consistent law across states. Summerfeld said the division will submit a paper amendment to make the virtual‑currency remittance language explicit.

The committee received the amendment and closed the hearing on House Bill 1149 without a recorded committee vote. The division asked the committee to move the bill forward; staff will post the formal amendment language for committee consideration.