A. The initial application, survey, and license fee for a license to make consumer loans shall be six hundred fifty dollars payable in a form acceptable to the commissioner when the application is filed. Such application, survey, and license fee shall be nonrefundable. If the license is not issued for any reason, upon written request of the applicant, the fee shall be applied to the submission of a new application.

            B. The annual renewal fee, including examination, shall be five hundred dollars, payable on or before December thirty-first of each year.

            C.(1) The survey fee for an application to change the location of a licensed lender shall be one hundred dollars. If the change in location is approved by the commissioner of financial institutions, no additional fee shall be required for the transfer of the existing license to the new location.

            (2) The fee to change the name or the mailing address of a licensed lender that does not involve the relocation of the lender shall be fifty dollars.

            (3) However, a fee of fifty dollars shall be assessed if a licensed lender changes locations without complying with the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 9:3561(B) or changes its name without complying with the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 9:3561(E). Whenever the commissioner learns that a licensed lender has changed locations or name without complying with the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 9:3561(B) or (E), he shall notify the licensed lender by certified mail, return receipt requested, that the fee has been assessed.

            D. If the commissioner has not received the assessed fee within thirty days after the date the licensed lender received his notification of assessment, he shall revoke the licensed lender’s license without hearing or further notification. The license shall not be reinstated. However, the former licensee may apply for a new license.

            E. No fee shall be prorated.

            F.(1) If the commissioner has not received the annual renewal fee from a licensed lender on or before December thirty-first, he shall notify the licensed lender and assess a late fee of one hundred dollars.

            (2) If the commissioner has not received the annual renewal fee and late fee before March first of the following year, the license to make consumer loans and insurance premium finance loans shall lapse without a hearing or notification, and the license shall not be reinstated; however, the person whose license has lapsed may apply for a new license.

            G.(1) If the lender’s records are located outside this state, the lender, at the commissioner’s option, shall make them available in a format deemed by the commissioner to be acceptable to include physical reproductions and digital electronically imaged records. The lender shall make these available to the commissioner at a location within this state convenient to the commissioner, or via electronic transmittal or delivery of optical imaging disc containing electronic copies of the records, or pay the reasonable and necessary expenses for the commissioner or his representatives to examine them at the place where they are maintained. The method of examination and delivery of records will be at the sole discretion of the commissioner. The commissioner may designate representatives, including comparable officials of the state in which the records are located, to inspect them on his behalf.

            (2) The commissioner shall have the authority to examine the books, records, and accounts of any former licensed lender or other permit holder which is being liquidated or is engaging in the collection or enforcement of consumer loans.

            (3) Persons regulated by this Chapter, including persons engaged in the collection or enforcement of consumer loans who have not paid an examination fee for any reason, including revocation, suspension, cancellation, relinquishment, or non-renewal of permit, shall, upon examination, pay an examination fee to the commissioner of fifty dollars per hour per examiner. If the examination fee is not paid within thirty days after its assessment, the person examined is subject to an administrative penalty of not more than one hundred dollars each day that it is late. The penalty, together with the amount due, may be recovered by the commissioner in a civil action brought in any court of competent jurisdiction.

            H. The commissioner may promulgate rules or regulations to reduce the fees described in Subsections A and B of this Section with respect to their application to automated loan machines.

            I. Any person required to be licensed by this Chapter shall pay all applicable fees to utilize any electronic database licensing system as described in La. Rev. Stat. 6:121.8.

            Acts 1985, No. 808, §1, eff. July 22, 1985; Acts 1988, No. 936, §1; Acts 1990, No. 227, §1, eff. July 3, 1990; Acts 1992, No. 114, §1, eff. June 5, 1992; Acts 1992, No. 145, §1; Acts 1995, No. 1184, §2; Acts 1997, No. 284, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1432, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1315, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2000; Acts 2003, No. 1233, §1; Acts 2010, No. 33, §1, eff. May 26, 2010; Acts 2012, No. 220, §2, eff. May 22, 2012; Acts 2014, No. 636, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2015; Acts 2015, No. 207, §1.