Committee approves Banking Departments housekeeping bill adding elder- fraud holds, Bitcoin kiosk rules and litigation-finance oversight

A legislative committee approved LC620310S, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finances annual housekeeping substitute bill, following a floor presentation and member questions. The bill would create three main changes: an optional transaction-hold tool to protect eligible adults from suspected financial exploitation, new registration and consumer-protection rules for virtual-currency kiosks (commonly called Bitcoin ATMs), and strengthened annual registration and oversight for litigation financiers.

The bills author and committee presenter, Chairman Bruce Williamson, said the hold provision would let a trained financial institution temporarily pause a transaction when staff reasonably believe an eligible adult is being exploited. "This bills gonna attempt to put some guardrails around our elderly," Williamson said in committee when describing scams that use synthetic or impersonated voices to coerce victims into wiring money. Under the proposal, an institution may place a discretionary hold of up to 15 days while it investigates and may extend the hold…