2017 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 37 - Consumer Protection Code
CHAPTER 3 - LOANS
Section 37-3-503. License to make supervised loans.

(1) The State Board of Financial Institutions shall receive and act on all applications for licenses to make supervised loans under this title. Applications shall be filed in the manner prescribed by the Board and shall contain the information the Board requires by rule to make an evaluation of the financial responsibility, character and fitness of the applicant, and the convenience and advantage to the community in which the licensed office is to be located.

(2) An applicant meets the minimum standard of financial responsibility for engaging in the business of making supervised loans (Section 37-3-502) if he has available for operation of that business in this State assets of at least twenty-five thousand dollars for each license issued.

(3) Upon written request, the applicant is entitled to a hearing on the question of his qualifications for a license if (a) the State Board of Financial Institutions has notified the applicant in writing that his application has been denied, or (b) the Board 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 Board has mailed a writing to the applicant notifying him that the application has been denied and stating in substance the Board findings supporting denial of the application.

(4) The State Board of Financial Institutions shall issue additional licenses to the same licensee upon compliance with all the provisions of this Title governing issuance of a single license. A separate license shall be required for each place of business. Each license shall remain in full force and effect until surrendered, suspended, or revoked.

(5) A supervised lender, other than a supervised financial organization, prior to installation of an electronic information processing device in the form of a computer terminal, whether or not manned by an employee of the licensee, which is or may be activated by a customer of a licensee for the purpose of obtaining consumer loans from a licensee, whether by way of cash disbursement or other method of funds transfer, must apply for and obtain a license for such installation if located off premises from a licensed location or place of business.

(6) No licensee shall change the location of any place of business without giving the State Board of Financial Institutions at least 15 days prior written notice and no such change shall be made to a location outside of the city or town for which a license is issued, without obtaining a new license for such location. For these purposes "city or town" means an incorporated area and its contiguous unincorporated suburbs.

(7)(a) A licensee may conduct the business of making supervised loans only at or from any place of business for which he holds a license and not under any other name than that in the license. Sales or leases made pursuant to a lender credit card do not violate this subsection.

(b)(1) A person licensed to make supervised loans may not make or enter into a closed-end credit transaction, with an original repayment term of less than one hundred twenty days, unsecured by any interest in the consumer's personal property or secured by personal property, excluding motor vehicles that are free of any other liens or encumbrances, that does not have a market value that reasonably secures the amount of the loan, and the consumer:

(i) receives funds from and incurs interest or a fee payable to a creditor, and contemporaneously with, or any time after, the receipt of funds, provides a check or other payment instrument to the creditor who agrees with the consumer not to deposit or present the check or payment instrument; or

(ii) receives funds from and incurs interest or a fee payable to a creditor, and contemporaneously with, or any time after, the receipt of funds, authorizes the creditor to initiate a debit or debits to the consumer's deposit account by electronic fund transfer or a remotely created check or remotely created consumer item as defined in Section 36-3-103(16).

(2) The board shall impose the following penalties for violation of this item:

(a) a fine of five hundred dollars for the first violation;

(b) a fine of one thousand dollars for the second violation;

(c) permanent revocation of license for the third violation.

The board may not revoke a license issued pursuant to this chapter unless the licensee has been given notice and opportunity for hearing in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act.

(3) In addition to the penalties required in subsubitem (2), the board or the court may order and impose civil penalties upon a person subject to the provisions of this article for violations of this article or its regulations in an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars for each violation. The board also may order repayment of unlawful or excessive fees charged to customers.

(c) The provisions of item (b)(1) do not apply to credit unions, bank holding companies, banks, or financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

(d) A person licensed to make supervised loans that makes supervised loans secured by a motor vehicle that have an original repayment term of less than one hundred twenty days must comply with the provisions contained in Section 37-3-413.

(8) The State Board of Financial Institutions, for the purposes of execution of its responsibilities under this Title, shall be entitled to collect from applicants and licensees the regulatory fees provided in Chapter 29, Title 34. But all lenders shall pay the notification fee provided in this Title to administrator.

HISTORY: 1976 Act No. 686 Section 2; 1982 Act No. 385, Sections 39, 59; 2010 Act No. 287, Section 4.B, eff June 29, 2010.

Editor's Note

2010 Act No. 287, Section 3, provides as follows:

"Any provision of this act deemed by HUD to conflict with its interpretation of the SAFE Act, provided for in Section 1508 of Title V of The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Public Law 110-289, must be interpreted, applied, or amended in such a way so as to comply with HUD's interpretation of the SAFE Act. If any provision of this act cannot be interpreted, applied, or amended in such a way so as to comply with the SAFE Act, that provision must be severed from the act and shall not affect the remainder of the act's compliance with the SAFE Act. The regulating authority shall adopt emergency regulations or take other actions necessary to ensure compliance with the SAFE Act and the regulating authority's continued jurisdiction over and supervision of the mortgage business in this State."