SB161: AN ACT relating to earned wage access services.

Legislative Summary

Establish Subtitle 13 of KRS Chapter 286, the Kentucky Financial Services Code, and create new sections to regulate earned wage access services; define terms; establish exemptions from the subtitle; establish licensing requirements for certain earned wage access services providers; establish requirements for change of control of a licensee; provide circumstances under which the commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions is authorized to take adverse action, enter emergency orders, deny a license, or take other regulatory actions; authorize licensees and other persons aggrieved by a final decision of the commissioner to request an administrative hearing; establish trade practice requirements for earned wage access services providers; require licensees to maintain an agent in this state for service of process; require an annual report by licensees; require the commissioner to make and publish an analysis and recapitulation of the annual reports submitted by licensees; establish recordkeeping requirements for licensees; provide that certain information is confidential and not subject to disclosure; authorize the commissioner to promulgate administrative regulations for the proper conduct of business under the subtitle and to conduct examinations and investigations; prohibit a licensee from being subject to liability for an act or omission made in conformity with a notice, opinion, or interpretation issued by the commissioner; establish civil and criminal penalties; provide that a contract made in violation of the subtitle is void; amend KRS 286.4-410, 286.11-007, and 371.150 to conform; authorize certain earned wage access providers to continue to act without a license during initial implementation; provide that Sections 1 to 26 may be cited as the Kentucky Earned Wage Access Services Act.