Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans.

(1) Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, generally provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders and brokers by the Commissioner of Business Oversight and makes a willful violation of its provisions a crime. That law, until January 1, 2023, establishes the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans, which requires licensees and other entities that wish to participate in the program to file an application and pay a specified fee to the commissioner to participate in the program. The program authorizes a licensee approved by the commissioner to participate in the program to impose specified alternative interest rates and charges, including an administrative fee and delinquency fees, on unsecured loans of at least $300 and less than $2,500, subject to certain requirements. The program permits a licensee to use a finder, which is defined as an entity that, at its physical location for business, brings together a borrower and a licensee to negotiate a loan under the program. The program requires the commissioner, annually until July 1, 2021, as specified, to post a report on his or her Internet Web site summarizing utilization of the program. Existing law requires licensed finance lenders to perform specified actions when a loan is repaid, including providing a borrower with certain documents marked paid or an optical reproduction of them. This bill would permit a licensee that consummates electronically an unsecured loan under the Pilot Program for Increased Access to Responsible Small Dollar Loans to satisfy the requirements to provide a borrower with documents marked "paid" by providing the borrower or person making final payment with a receipt, as specified. The bill would eliminate the upper limit on the amount of a permissible loan under the pilot program and make corresponding changes. The bill would revise the statement of legislative findings for the program and specify the applicability of certain pilot program requirements on licensees and specified associates, when making loans above $2,500. The bill would revise the term finder to instead be referral partner and would make various conforming changes in this regard. The bill would revise the conditions under which a licensee may refinance a loan under the pilot program to apply to borrowers who have been current on their loans for a minimum of 8 consecutive months. The bill would permit a referral agent's activities to be done through other means and not necessarily at his or her physical business location. The bill would delete other provisions connected to an entity who uses an electronic access point, as specified, or personally contacts a borrower at a physical business location, among other things. The bill would prohibit a referral partner from performing unsolicited door-to-door or telephonic solicitation. The bill would require licensees who that use referral agents to provide them training, as specified, and to implement procedures to ensure that referral partners act in compliance with the law. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that a licensee provide a borrower of a consummated loan a written copy of a specified disclosure notice within 2 weeks of consummation. The bill would revise requirements on compensating finders by eliminating a limit on total compensation paid over the life of a loan and would prescribe limits on compensation with reference to the contractual lengths of loans. The bill would revise the content of the report that the Commissioner of Business Oversight is required to provide to include certain information on loan applicants who were denied loans and for borrowers who did and did not have credit scores when they obtained loans, among other things. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.