STAND. COM. REP. NO.  78

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2009

 

RE:   H.B. No. 272

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 272 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII REGISTERED AGENTS ACT,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to allow commercial registered agents to register as such with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

 

     The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the State Commission to Promote Uniform Legislation submitted testimony in support of this measure.

 

     Currently, every domestic or foreign entity registered to do business in the State of Hawaii is required to have a registered agent who is located in the State to accept service of process. In a growing number of cases, a company acts as the registered agent for many different entities, thus requiring the company and the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to process multiple filings for each entity. 

 

     Your Committees find that creating a registry of commercial registered agents will streamline the process, so that if there are any changes in the name, address, or other information of the commercial agent, the change need only be noted in the registration for the commercial agent rather than for each of the entities for whom the commercial agent acts as a registered agent.  Simplifying the process will reduce the time and costs of multiple registrations for both the commercial registered agents and the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

 

     Your Committee received testimony from the Commissioner of Securities, who also supervises the staff of the Business Registration Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, who provided a vivid example of how this measure will simplify the work of that agency.  A few months ago, a registered agent was required by the United States Postal Service to revise its address.  The agent thereupon had to file change of address applications for each of the over three thousand entities it represented.  Departmental staff took over three months to process all of the applications.  Had this measure been in place, that commercial registered agent would have been able to file a single change application online.  Your Committee therefore finds that this measure will do much to promote efficiency in government operations.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 272 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary,

 

 

____________________________

JON RIKI KARAMATSU, Chair

 

____________________________

ROBERT N. HERKES, Chair