Relating to skimmers on electronic terminals; authorizing a civil penalty; creating criminal offenses.
HB 4853 creates a new chapter in the Business & Commerce Code to address payment card skimmers found on electronic terminals such as point-of-sale devices, ATMs, cash dispensing machines, and virtual currency terminals. The bill defines key terms, assigns administration and rulemaking authority to the Financial Crimes Intelligence Center, and establishes procedures for reporting, investigating, and responding to suspected skimmers. It requires service technicians, service companies, and merchants to notify the center and, in some cases, law enforcement when a skimmer is discovered, and it authorizes the center to inspect the affected terminal and related terminals at the same business.
The bill also makes information gathered through skimmer reports and investigations generally confidential, with specified exceptions for law enforcement, financial institutions, payment card issuers, payment card networks, higher education institutions, the Texas Department of Banking, and other authorized disclosures. It creates enforcement tools including a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day per violation, enforceable by the attorney general, and it creates criminal offenses for refusing an inspection, negligently or recklessly disposing of a skimmer, and knowingly disposing of a skimmer during an ongoing investigation or pending criminal proceeding. The bill takes effect immediately if approved by a two-thirds vote, or otherwise on September 1, 2025.
HB 4853 would expand state law by adding a dedicated statutory framework for identifying, reporting, investigating, and penalizing skimmer-related fraud at electronic terminals. It would give the Financial Crimes Intelligence Center a central role in enforcement and rulemaking, impose new duties on merchants and service providers, and create both civil and criminal consequences for noncompliance or tampering with evidence. The bill would also affect confidentiality and public-information rules by making certain skimmer-related records confidential while investigations are active, subject to later disclosure under specified conditions.
The available context suggests the bill was treated as a consumer-protection and anti-fraud measure, with no recorded committee transcript debate or vote breakdown showing opposition or support. Its placement in the Pensions, Investments & Financial Services committees indicates it was considered within the financial-crimes and payments-security policy area. The final action, laying the bill on the table subject to call, suggests the measure did not advance to final passage during the recorded stage, but the provided materials do not show the reasons for that outcome.
The main potential points of contention are the bill’s enforcement powers and reporting obligations. Merchants and service companies are required to cooperate with inspections, disable terminals, and report skimmer discoveries, while refusal to allow inspection and certain disposal conduct are criminalized. Another likely issue is the confidentiality structure, which limits public access to reports and investigative materials while allowing disclosure to specific entities and, in some cases, the public for law-enforcement purposes. Because no committee transcript is provided, the specific objections or supporters cannot be identified from the record.