§ 45-15-108 — Rules and regulations - Compliance examinations - Preservation of books and records - Reproduction and preservation of records - Report by commissioner on rates and terms of loans

(a) The commissioner may promulgate reasonable regulations, in accordance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, for the enforcement of this chapter. A copy of any rule or regulation adopted by the commissioner shall be mailed to each license holder at least thirty (30) days before the date the rule or regulation takes effect. (b) To assure compliance with this chapter, the commissioner may examine the relevant business, books and records of any title pledge lender. The costs for an examination or investigation of licensees shall be assessed pursuant to § 45-1-118(i) . An unlicensed person subject to the licensing requirements of this chapter, who is examined or investigated in accordance with this chapter, shall pay to the commissioner the reasonable and actual expenses of the investigation or examination. (c) The commissioner, for the purpose of discovering violations of this chapter and for the purpose of determining whether persons are subject to this chapter, is authorized to examine persons licensed under this chapter and persons reasonably suspected by the commissioner of conducting business that requires a license under this chapter, including all relevant books, records and papers employed by those persons in the transaction of their business, and to summon witnesses and examine them under oath concerning matters relating to the business of those persons, or other matters that may be relevant to the discovery of violations of this chapter, including, but not limited to, the conduct of business without a license as required under this chapter. (d) All books and records required to be preserved by this chapter or any regulation of the commissioner, or required by any federal statute, regulation, or regulatory guideline, as applicable to each title pledge lender, shall be preserved and made available to the commissioner as provided in this chapter, for a period of twenty-five (25) months on all rejected applications, and for a period of twenty-four (24) months on loans paid in full. The title pledge lender may cause any or all records at any time in its custody to be reproduced or preserved, by the title pledge lender or by any other person who agrees in writing to submit its operations to the examination of the commissioner, to the extent that the operations directly affect the record-keeping, by any microphotographic process, electronic or mechanical data storage technique or any other means. A record reproduced or preserved by those processes, techniques or means shall have the same force and effect as the original record, and shall be admitted into evidence equally with the original. All records of the title pledge lending business shall be maintained separately by the title pledge lender from any other business in which the title pledge lender may engage. (e) Commencing July 1, 2005, the commissioner shall have the authority to have full access to all records of a person engaged in the business of title pledge lending, for the sole purpose of making a written report to the general assembly, no later than February 1, 2006. The scope of the report shall be within the discretion of the commissioner, but shall, at a minimum, include an analysis of the rates and terms of title pledge loans and the reasonableness and appropriateness of the rates and terms.

Legislative History

Amended by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 736,s 18, eff. 7/1/2015. Acts 1995, ch. 186, § 13; 2005, ch. 440, § 7.