SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Both houses of the California State Legislature have passed a bill which would, among other things, include the card industry's data security standards into state law for the first time and provide credit unions with a means of recouping their losses when a retailer or processing institution fails to implement the standard and suffers a breach.

The bill also providers for retailers to notify consumers when they have suffered a breach, when, and what data has been lost. Credit unions, which strongly supported the bill, pushed hard for this provision, pointing out that often members have been blaming their credit unions for the trouble and anxiety of a card breach when it has often not been the CU's fault.

There are small technical differences between the two bills that will need to be reconciled before a final version can be passed and sent to Governor Schwarzenegger. Chris Johnson, vice president of State Government Affairs for CUNA said that the Governor has not yet signaled that he will sign the bill, but that supporters felt pretty confident about getting a signature.