Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 31A > Article 8G - The West Virginia Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Program

• Applicable agency: means a department or agency of the state that by law regulates certain types of business activity in the state and persons engaged in such business activity, including the issuance of licenses or other types of authorization, which the department determines would otherwise regulate a regulatory sandbox participant. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Applicant: means an individual or entity that is applying to participate in the regulatory sandbox program. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means a person that purchases or otherwise enters into a transaction or agreement to receive an innovative product or service that is being tested by a regulatory sandbox participant. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Distributed ledger: means the use of a digital database containing records of financial transactions, including blockchain technology, which can be simultaneously used and shared within a decentralized, publicly accessible network and can record transactions between two parties in a verifiable and permanent way. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• division: means the Division of Banking of West Virginia. See West Virginia Code 31A-1-2
• Financial product or service: means :

  (A) A financial product or financial service that requires state licensure or registration. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2

• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Innovation: means the use or incorporation of a new or emerging technology or a new use of existing technology, including distributed ledger, to address a problem, provide a benefit, or otherwise offer a product, service, business model, or delivery mechanism that is not known by the Division of Financial Institutions to have a comparable widespread offering in the state. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Innovative product or service: means a financial product or service that includes an innovation. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Laws of the state: includes the Constitution of the State of West Virginia and the Constitution of the United States, and treaties and laws made in pursuance thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Offense: includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture, or punishment is imposed by law. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Regulatory sandbox participant: means a person whose application to participate in the regulatory sandbox program is approved in accordance with the provisions of this article. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Regulatory sandbox program: means the West Virginia FinTech Regulatory Sandbox Program created by this article, which allows a person to temporarily test an innovative product or service on a limited basis without otherwise being licensed or authorized to act under the laws of the state. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• Regulatory sandbox testing period: means a 24-month period beginning on the date an applicant is admitted to the regulatory sandbox program. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2
• State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Test: means to provide an innovative product or service in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 31A-8G-2