Bill Proposes Significant Changes To Finance Lenders Law
If you are in the business of making loans in California, there’s a good chance that you need a license. Some lenders are licensed under the Real Estate Law while others are licensed under laws governing banks, credit unions or residential mortgage lending. If a lender doesn’t fall within any of these categories, that lender may be subject to the Read more...
Move Over Hester Prynne: If Your Company Is Delinquent, You May Also Be Wearing A Scarlet Letter
In 2006, then Assembly Member Jerome Horton authored AB 1418 to require the Board of Equalization and the Franchise Tax Board to make publicly available lists of the 250 largest tax delinquencies in excess of $100,000. In California, the BOE collects sales and use taxes and the FTB collects personal and corporate taxes. Last year, the legislature enacted AB 1424 (Perea), Read more...
DOC Warns Financial Services Licensees And Can A Theory Be A Tautology?
Last April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued this Bulletin cautioning supervised banks and certain non-depository financial services companies that they must have “an effective process for managing the risks of service provider relationships”. Like many regulatory requirements, the Bulletin has given birth to both a new industry and unintended consequences. The new industry is third-party risk management. This is a screening service provided to financial service Read more...
Justice Scalia, Liberal Construction & The Finance Lenders Law
A few weeks ago, I purchased a copy of Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts by Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner. According to the cover, the authors “carefully and engagingly explain 57 valid canons of construction and dispel 13 false notions about legal interpretation . . . .” While it is true that the book is engaging (and I would Read more...
Sale-Leaseback Transactions And The Finance Lenders Law
The California Finance Lenders Law generally requires that persons ”engaged in the business of making consumer loans or making commercial loans” be licensed, unless exempt. Cal. Fin. Code §§ 22100(a) and 22009. The business of making consumer loans or commercial loans may include lending money and taking, in the name of the lender, or in any other name, in whole or in part, as security Read more...
CFL Annual Report Form Presents A Subterranean Problem For DOC
Every person who was licensed under the California Finance Lenders Law as of December 31, 2011 must file an annual report with the Department of Corporations. The report is due on or before March 15, 2012. Cal. Fin. Code § 22159(a). The Department uses the report to determine each licensee’s annual assessment. The Department also uses the report for compliance Read more...
Two Bills Amend Capital Access Loan Program
With political controversy swirling around the federal government’s energy loan guaranty program, many may not realize that California has its own loan guaranty program. The California Pollution Control Financing Authority administers the California program. If you’ve never heard of the CPCFA, it happens to be a political subdivision of the State of California that consists of the State Treasurer, Controller, and Read more...
Some Things Can Be Too Late – Don’t Forget To File Your CFL Annual Report
Every person who was licensed under the California Finance Lenders Law as of December 31, 2010 must file an annual report with the California Department of Corporations. A report is required even if the licensee has conducted no business under its licensee during 2010. The report is due on or before Tuesday March 15, 2011. The Department of Corporation does not grant extensions of Read more...
Usury Exemption Bites Back
Last week, I wrote about the oft overlooked California Finance Lenders (CFL) law. In general, that law provides that anyone engaged in the business of making consumer or commercial loans must obtain a license from the Department of Corporations (unless an exemption is available). CFL licensees do enjoy one benefit. They constitute a class of “exempt persons” for purposes of California’s constitutional Read more...
“License? We Don’t Need No Stinking License”
The Department of Corporations’ jurisdiction is not limited to the Corporate Securities Law of 1968. In fact, it has an entire division dedicated to financial services regulation. The Department’s Financial Services Division, or FSD, has responsibililty for administering the following six laws: California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law California Finance Lenders Law California Foreclosure Prevention Act California Residential Mortgage Lending Act Check Read more...
