O.C.G.A. § 7-3-2 (2019)
Transfer to Department of Banking and Finance
(a) The powers, functions, and duties of the office of the Commissioner of Insurance relative to this chapter are transferred to the Department of Banking and Finance effective July 1, 2020. All action taken by the office of the Commissioner of Insurance prior to that date shall be considered valid, and the department shall, as of July 1, 2020, assume all ongoing and continuing obligations pursuant to this chapter. All personnel, supplies, records, materials, furniture, furnishings, books, equipment, motor vehicles, and services of the office of the Commissioner of Insurance utilized pursuant to the authority granted under this chapter shall be transferred to the department on July 1, 2020. Any action or investigation pending pursuant to this chapter shall remain in full force and effect and any powers relating to such action or investigation shall be transferred to the department on July 1, 2020. (b) All rules, orders, and actions adopted by the Commissioner of Insurance pursuant to this chapter shall remain in full force and effect as rules, orders, and actions of the department unless amended, repealed, or superseded by rule, order, or action of the department. (c) All property, real and personal, funds, accounts receivable, contracts, liabilities, and obligations of the office of the Commissioner of Insurance for effectuating this chapter shall become the property, funds, accounts receivable, contracts, liabilities, and obligations of the department on July 1, 2020. Appropriations to the Commissioner of Insurance for functions transferred to the department pursuant to this Code section shall be transferred as provided in Code Section 45-12-90.
History
Ga. L. 1955, p. 431, § 2; Ga. L. 1975, p. 393, § 1; Ga. L. 2020, p. 156, § 2/SB 462.
Annotations
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Funding agreements were investment contracts, not loans. - After the defendants entered into separate funding agreements with the plaintiffs, the defendant’s motion to dismiss a putative class action for damages premised on violations of the Georgia Industrial Loan Act (GILA) (now Georgia Installment Loan Act), O.C.G.A. § 7-3-1 et seq., was properly granted, but
the defendant’s motion with regard to the Payday Lending Act (PLA), O.C.G.A. § 16-17-1 et seq., was improperly denied as the funding agreements were not loans, but rather were investments in the plaintiffs’ litigation, because the repayment requirement was completely contingent upon the recovery of proceeds from the plaintiffs’ related legal claims; thus, instead of being loans that were
regulated by the GILA and the PLA, the funding agreements were investment contracts to which the GILA and the PLA did not apply. Cherokee Funding LLC v.
Ruth, 342 Ga. App. 404, 802 S.E.2d 865, 2017 Ga. App. LEXIS 313 (2017), aff’d, 304 Ga. 574, 820 S.E.2d 704, 2018 Ga. LEXIS 681 (2018).
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Purpose of chapter; banks not subject to regulation by it. - Purpose of the Georgia Industrial Loan Act (see now Georgia Installment Loan Act, O.C.G.A. § 7-3-1 et seq.) is to provide regulation for otherwise unregulated
entities engaged in business of making small loans. Banks are otherwise regulated and are, therefore, not subject to regulation under that Act. 1979 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 79-33.
RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. 53A Am. Jur. 2d, Moneylenders and Pawnbrokers, § 1 et seq. C.J.S. 47 C.J.S., Interest and Usury Consumer Credit, §§ 407, 408. ALR. Construction and application of
provisions of small loan acts as regards maximum amount of loan, 99 A.L.R. 923. Construction and application of provisions of small loan statutes prohibiting the splitting up or dividing of a loan, or the existence of indebtedness under more than one contract of loan at the same time, 141 A.L.R. 912.