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Senate Bill 387 History
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ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 387
(By Senators Minard, Jenkins, McCabe, Williams and Plymale)
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[Passed March 9, 2010; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT
to amend and reenact §46A-4-102 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to regulated consumer
lenders; providing that mortgage loan originators employed by
regulated consumer lenders in this state must be either
licensed or registered with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing
System and Registry; and requiring regulated consumer lenders
to provide notice of change of ownership and/or control of
such institutions to the West Virginia Division of Banking.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §46A-4-102 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. REGULATED CONSUMER LENDERS.
§46A-4-102. License to make regulated consumer loans.
(1) The commissioner shall receive and act on all applications
for licenses to make regulated consumer loans under this chapter. Applications shall be under oath, be filed in the manner prescribed
by the commissioner and contain the information the commissioner
requires to make an evaluation of the financial responsibility,
experience, character and fitness of the applicant and the findings
required of him or her before he or she may issue a license. At
the time of the filing of the application, the sum of $750 shall be
paid to the commissioner as an investigation fee.
(2) A license may not be issued to a supervised financial
organization other than to one primarily engaged in the business of
making consumer loans through offices located within this state or
to one licensed under the provisions of the West Virginia Mortgage
Loan Act as contained in article seventeen, chapter thirty-one of
this code, or to any banking institution as defined by the
provisions of section two, article one, chapter thirty-one-a of
this code. A license will not be granted to any office located
outside this state: Provided, That the limitation of licensing
contained in this subsection does not prevent any supervised
financial organization from making regulated consumer loans when
the applicable state or federal statute, law, rule or regulation
permits. A license may not be issued to any person unless the
commissioner, upon investigation, finds that the financial
responsibility, experience, character and fitness of the applicant,
and of the members thereof (if the applicant is a copartnership or
association) and of the officers and directors thereof (if the
applicant is a corporation), are such as to command the confidence of the community and to warrant belief that the business will be
operated honestly, fairly and efficiently, within the purposes of
this chapter, and the applicant has available for the operation of
the business at least $10,000 in capital and has, for each
specified location of operation, assets of at least $2,000.
(3) Upon written request, the applicant is entitled to a
hearing on the question of his or her qualifications for a license
if: (a) The commissioner has notified the applicant in writing that
his or her application has been denied; or (b) the commissioner has
not issued a license within sixty days after the application for
the license was filed. A request for a hearing may not be made
more than fifteen days after the commissioner has mailed a writing
to the applicant notifying him or her that the application has been
denied and stating in substance the commissioner's findings
supporting denial of the application.
(4) Not more than one place of business shall be maintained
under the same license, but the commissioner may issue more than
one license to the same licensee upon compliance with all the
provisions of this article governing an original issuance of a
license for each such new license. Each license shall remain in
full force and effect until surrendered, forfeited, suspended or
revoked.
(5) Upon giving the commissioner at least fifteen days' prior
written notice, a licensee may: (a) Change the location of any
place of business located within a municipality to any other location within that same municipality; or (b) change the location
of any place of business located outside of a municipality to a
location no more than five miles from the originally licensed
location, but in no case may a licensee move any place of business
located outside a municipality to a location within a municipality.
A licensee may not move the location of any place of business
located within a municipality to any other location outside of that
municipality.
(6) A licensee may conduct the business of making regulated
consumer loans only at or from a place of business for which he or
she holds a license and not under any other name than that stated
in the license.
(7) A license issued under the provisions of this section
shall not be transferable or assignable.
(8) A licensee must be incorporated under the laws of this
state. The licensee may, however, be a subsidiary of an out-of-
state company or financial institution.
(9) All mortgage loan originators, as defined in article
seventeen-a, chapter thirty-one of this code, who are employed by
a licensed regulated consumer lender must be licensed or registered
and issued a unique identifier by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing
System and Registry pursuant to the requirements provided in
article seventeen-a, chapter thirty-one of this code.
(10) All regulated consumer lenders must file with the
commissioner a bond in favor of the state for the benefit of consumers or for a claim by the commissioner for an unpaid civil
administrative penalty or an unpaid examination invoice in the
amount of $100,000 for licensees with West Virginia mortgage loan
originations of $0 to $3 million, $150,000 for West Virginia
mortgage loan originations greater than $3 million and up to $10
million, and $200,000 for West Virginia mortgage loan originations
over $10 million in a form and with conditions as the commissioner
may prescribe and executed by a surety company authorized to do
business in this state.
(11) All regulated consumer lenders shall notify the
commissioner of any merger or acquisition which may result in a
change of control or a change in principals of the regulated
consumer lender within fifteen days of announcement or publication
of the proposal, or its occurrence, whichever is earlier. Upon
notice of these circumstances by a corporate licensee, the
commissioner may require all information necessary to determine
whether it results in a transfer or assignment of the license and
thus if a new application is required in order for the company to
continue doing business under this article. A licensee that is an
entity other than a corporation shall in these circumstances submit
a new application for licensure at the time of notice.