2020 California Code
Financial Code - FIN
DIVISION 24 - California Consumer Financial Protection Law
CHAPTER 5 - Definitions
Section 90005.

The definitions in this section apply throughout this division, except as otherwise provided in this division or if the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(a) “Affiliate” means any person that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another person. For purposes of this definition, “control” means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person.

(b) “Department” means the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

(c) “Consumer” means an individual or an agent, trustee, or representative acting on behalf of an individual or the estate, trust, or joint trust of an individual, however denominated.

(d) “Consumer financial law” means a federal or California law that directly and specifically regulates the manner, content, or terms and conditions of any financial transaction, or any account, product, or service related thereto, with respect to a consumer.

(e) “Consumer financial product or service” means either of the following:

(1) A financial product or service that is delivered, offered, or provided for use by consumers primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.

(2) A financial product or service as described in paragraph (11) of subdivision (k).

(f) “Covered person” means, to the extent not preempted by federal law, any of the following:

(1) Any person that engages in offering or providing a consumer financial product or service to a resident of this state.

(2) Any affiliate of a person described in this subdivision if the affiliate acts as a service provider to the person.

(3) Any service provider to the extent that the person engages in the offering or provision of its own consumer financial product or service.

(g) “Credit” means the right granted by a person to another person to defer payment of a debt, incur debt and defer its payment, or purchase property or services and defer payment for those purchases.

(h) “Debt” means any obligation of a person to pay another person money regardless of whether the obligation is absolute or contingent, has been reduced to judgment, is fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, secured, or unsecured and includes any obligation that gives rise to right of an equitable remedy for breach of performance if the breach gives rise to a right to payment.

(i) “Deposit-taking activity” means any of the following:

(1) The acceptance of deposits, maintenance of deposit accounts, or the provision of services related to the acceptance of deposits or the maintenance of deposit accounts.

(2) The acceptance of funds, the provision of other services related to the acceptance of funds, or the maintenance of member share accounts by a credit union.

(3) The receipt of funds or the equivalent thereof, as the department may determine by rule or order, received or held by a covered person or an agent for a covered person for the purpose of facilitating a payment or transferring funds or value of funds between a consumer and a third party.

(j) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation.

(k) “Financial product or service” means:

(1) Extending credit and servicing extensions of credit, including acquiring, purchasing, selling, brokering extensions of credit, other than solely extending commercial credit to a person who originates consumer credit transactions.

(2) Extending or brokering leases of personal or real property that are the functional equivalent of purchase finance arrangements, if all of the following:

(A) The lease is on a nonoperating basis.

(B) The initial term of the lease is at least 90 days.

(C) In the case of a lease involving real property, at the inception of the initial lease, the transaction is intended to result in ownership of the leased property to be transferred to the lessee, subject to standards prescribed by the department.

(3) Providing real estate settlement services.

(4) Engaging in deposit-taking activities, transmitting or exchanging funds, or otherwise acting as a custodian of funds or any financial instrument for use by or on behalf of a consumer.

(5) Selling, providing, or issuing stored value or payment instruments, except that, in the case of a sale of, or transaction to reload, stored value, only if the seller exercises substantial control over the terms or conditions of the stored value provided to the consumer where, for purposes of this paragraph, both:

(A) A seller shall not be found to exercise substantial control over the terms or conditions of the stored value if the seller is not a party to the contract with the consumer for the stored value product, and another person is principally responsible for establishing the terms or conditions of the stored value.

(B) Advertising the nonfinancial goods or services of the seller on the stored value card or device is not in itself an exercise of substantial control over the terms or conditions.

(6) Providing check cashing, check collection, or check guaranty services.

(7) Providing payments or other financial data processing products or services to a consumer by any technological means, including processing or storing financial or banking data for any payment instrument, or through any payment system or networks used for processing payment data, including payments made through an online banking system or mobile telecommunications network, except that a person shall not be deemed to be a covered person with respect to financial data processing solely because the person either:

(A) Is a merchant, retailer, or seller of any nonfinancial good or service who engages in financial data processing by transmitting or storing payment data about a consumer exclusively for purpose of initiating payment instructions by the consumer to pay that person for the purchase of, or to complete a commercial transaction for, the nonfinancial good or service sold directly by that person to the consumer.

(B) Provides access to a host server to a person for purposes of enabling that person to establish and maintain a website.

(8) Providing financial advisory services other than services relating to securities provided by a person regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission or a person regulated by a state securities commission, but only to the extent that such person acts in a regulated capacity, to consumers on individual financial matters or relating to proprietary financial products or services (other than by publishing any bona fide newspaper, news magazine, or business or financial publication of general and regular circulation, including publishing market data, news, or data analytics or investment information or recommendations that are not tailored to the individual needs of a particular consumer) including both of the following:

(A) Providing credit counseling to any consumer.

(B) Providing services to assist a consumer with debt management or debt settlement, modifying the terms of any extension of credit, or avoiding foreclosure.

(9) Collecting, analyzing, maintaining, or providing consumer report information or other account information, including information relating to the credit history of consumers, used or expected to be used in connection with any decision regarding the offering or provision of a consumer financial product or service, except to the extent that:

(A) A person does any of the following:

(i) Collects, analyzes, or maintains information that relates solely to the transactions between a consumer and that person.

(ii) Provides information to an affiliate of the person, as described in subdivision (a).

(iii) Provides information that is used or expected to be used solely in any decision regarding the offering or provision of a product or service that is not a consumer financial product or service.

(B) The information described in clause (i) of subparagraph (A) is not used by the person or affiliate in connection with any decision regarding the offering or provision of a consumer financial product or service to the consumer, other than credit described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (e) of Section 90006.

(10) Collecting debt related to any consumer financial product or service.

(11) Directly or indirectly brokering the offer or sale of a franchise in this state on behalf of another.

(12) Offering another financial product or service as may be defined by the department, by regulation, for purposes of this division, if the department finds that the financial product or service is either:

(A) Entered into or conducted as a subterfuge or with a purpose to evade any consumer financial law.

(B) Permissible for a bank or for a financial holding company to offer or to provide under any provision of law or regulation applicable to a bank or a financial holding company, and has, or likely will have, a material impact on consumers, excluding, however, solely from the department’s authority to define additional financial products and services under this subparagraph and not the exercise of any other authority it may have, the following activities provided to a covered person:

(i) Providing information products or services to a covered person for identity authentication.

(ii) Providing information products or services for fraud or identify theft detection, prevention, or investigation.

(iii) Providing document retrieval or delivery services.

(iv) Providing public records information retrieval.

(v) Providing information products or services for anti-money laundering activities.

(13) The term “financial product or service” does not include either of the following:

(A) Insurance, as defined in Section 22 of the Insurance Code, regulated by the Department of Insurance.

(B) The provision, by a person, of electronic data transmission, routing, intermediate or transient storage, or connections to a telecommunications system or network, not including a person that provides those electronic conduit services if, when providing those services, the person does any of the following:

(i) Selects or modifies the content of the electronic data.

(ii) Transmits, routes, stores, or provides connections for electronic data, including financial data, in a manner that the financial data is differentiated from other types of data of the same form that the person transmits, routes, or stores, or with respect to which, provides connections.

(iii) Is a payee, payor, correspondent, or similar party to a payment transaction with a consumer.

(l) “Payment instrument” means a check, draft, warrant, money order, traveler’s check, electronic instrument, or other instrument, payment of funds, or monetary value, other than currency.

(m) “Person” means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, proprietorship, syndicate, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation or joint stock company, or any other organization or legal or commercial entity.

(n) (1) “Service provider” means any person that provides a material service to a covered person in connection with the offering or provision by that covered person of a consumer financial product or service, including a person that either:

(A) Participates in designing, operating, or maintaining the consumer financial product or service.

(B) Processes transactions relating to the consumer financial product or service, other than unknowingly or incidentally transmitting or processing financial data in a manner that the data is undifferentiated from other types of data of the same form as the person transmits or processes.

(2) The term “service provider” does not include a person solely by virtue of that person offering or providing to a covered person either:

(A) A support service of a type provided to businesses generally or a similar ministerial service.

(B) Time or space for an advertisement for a consumer financial product or service through print, newspaper, or electronic media.

(o) (1) “Stored value” means funds or monetary value represented in any electronic format, whether or not specially encrypted, and stored or capable of storage on electronic media in such a way as to be retrievable and transferred electronically, and includes a prepaid debit card or product, or any other similar product, regardless of whether the amount of the funds or monetary value may be increased or reloaded.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the term “stored value” does not include a special purpose card or certificate, which shall be defined for purposes of this paragraph as funds or monetary value represented in any electronic format, whether or not specially encrypted, that is all of the following:

(A) Issued by a merchant, retailer, or other seller of nonfinancial goods or services.

(B) Redeemable only for transactions with the merchant, retailer, or seller of nonfinancial goods or services or with an affiliate of such person, which affiliate itself is a merchant, retailer, or seller of nonfinancial goods or services.

(C) Issued in a specified amount that, except in the case of a card or product used solely for telephone services, may not be increased or reloaded.

(D) Purchased on a prepaid basis in exchange for payment.

(E) Honored upon presentation to the merchant, retailer, or seller of nonfinancial goods or services or an affiliate of such person, which affiliate itself is a merchant, retailer, or seller of nonfinancial goods or services, only for any nonfinancial goods or services

(p) These definitions shall be interpreted consistently with the definitions in the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. Sec. 5481). Any inconsistency or ambiguity shall be resolved in favor of greater protections to the consumer and more expansive coverage.

(Added by Stats. 2020, Ch. 157, Sec. 7. (AB 1864) Effective January 1, 2021.)