Do I need a license to conduct MCA business in Cali?
Or is just extra forms and 4 months that is needed?
Does anybody know?
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Do I need a license to conduct MCA business in Cali?
Or is just extra forms and 4 months that is needed?
Does anybody know?
Not a lawyer but my understanding was that you already needed a license to conduct MCA business in California, whether brokering or funding, and that failure to have one is a crime (misdemeanor).
No you don't need a CA license. You can use a super broker. However, many lenders are not no longer doing loans in CA.
For funders willing to do CA deals you need to provide 4 months at submission and once the offer is presented disclosure documentation is needed, seems very fly by night so far
No quality funders have changed this, broker license or not, just a matter of not disclosing information that would trigger compliance of the disclosure docs yet being the key takeaway, the funders issue these once docs are presented
No that's not correct.
"Due to California’s strict requirements about when disclosures must be provided, you cannot provide written offer details (principal/advance amount and any rate/pricing/cost or total repayment/remittance amount) to a merchant and state that the offer is the only one presented by Credibly. Presentation of a single offer triggers the disclosures and a single offer has not been made by Credibly until you select one in the Offer Calculator. Until you have selected an offer and contracts have been generated and sent to the merchant, if you are providing offers in writing (including text message) you must communicate multiple Credibly offers to the merchant."
"Once you’ve selected an offer in the Offer Calculator for your California merchant, you will notice a new pop up window. You’ll have to click to confirm prior to sending/downloading the contract."
Well I have been dealing with FundShop, SmartBiz, Smart Advanced, to name a few and it's never come up. For the very few loans that are done California, it doesn't justify the licensing requirements as near as I can tell.
For some it's not worth doing business in California, and for others they roll the dice and choose to ignore the requirements. For you, I highly recommend contacting an attorney. You seem to be located in California, which would make me think it would be easier for them to enforce penalties.
any person who willfully violates any provision of this division, or who willfully violates any rule or order adopted pursuant to this division, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year or pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code, or by both that fine and imprisonment. However, no person may be imprisoned for the violation of any rule or order unless he or she had knowledge of the rule or order. Conviction under this section shall not preclude the commissioner from exercising the authority provided in Section 22713.
Cali will be interesting to follow...
This is an area that one should consult with an attorney. We are talking about Laws here. (Laws can be overturned/ challenged -- Which is why I'm so liberal in some areas..)
Complying with the law could actually create its own set of liabilities, one group is arguing.
https://debanked.com/2022/12/funding...isclosure-law/
https://dfpi.ca.gov/california-finan...-license-faqs/
Here's the requirements. But like i said I use a lender that is already licensed.
And the disclosure laws are being litigated by the trade groups.
However, I went though the regulation in the mortgage business requiring nmls license, broker licensing and audits and it's the future of the business. Financial disclosure are all part of it. Most of you will leave the industry as this expands to other states.
Any A-paper funder will require that the broker has a license. This isn't new at all. Once you start with the B and C-paper funders, then they typically start to look the other way.
Even if you use a superbroker, you still need a license. Will you get caught? Probably not.
There are ways to navigate around it but I was also told it does not follow the spirit of the law.
I'm just going to listen to the professionals lol
As far as the CA license goes, you need a license according to the law. Whether you send it to a super broker or not. If you get paid on the deal you need a license. For the disclosure requirements as of now any offer that is communicated to the client needs to have a disclosure communicated prior to sending the agreement. Will that change? Probably, however this is the current landscape as our partners see it.
California is one of the largest economies in the USA. They have regulations to do business within the state. More states will probably do the same in the future. Do the work required, get licensed, and follow the regulations period... Financial services can require some hard work and regulations. If you are not willing to do the work to do business in one of the largest economies in the USA I suggest finding another profession.
Yes but the larger companies have lots of Liability's in more areas then you can Imagine and not following laws to the tee (whichever they are!) can be a disaster waiting to happen. Sean can remind us of the big MCA settlement with state of Cali back in the days.
https://debanked.com/?s=california+license&x=0&y=0
https://dfpi.ca.gov/california-finan...law-about/#Who
1) You all really should be consulting legal professionals for clarity, but I would love for Sean & Debanked to update some current guidance for this as all of their articles are circa 2015-2016 when this was a problem.Quote:
Who is Required to Obtain a Finance Lenders License?
In general, any person engaging in the business of a finance lender or finance broker in California is required to obtain a license under the California Financing Law. The California Financing Law contains a number of exemptions for persons licensed by other regulatory agencies.
Definitions
“Finance lender” includes any person engaged in the business of making consumer loans or making commercial loans.
“Finance broker” includes any person engaged in the business of negotiating or performing any act as broker in connection with loans made by a finance lender. A broker license authorizes brokering of loans to licensed finance lenders; it does not authorize brokering of loans to those who are not licensed finance lenders.
2) A "MCA" is not a loan in CA, it appears, and as such is not subject to lending licenses. HOWEVER, it appears they are subject to APR disclosure laws and lending license or not, it appears that a BROKER OF ANY financial product or financial product marketing is required to be licensed in CA, from my interpretation of the Expansion Capital legal filing I found below. Correct me if I am wrong on that last part?
3) It appears as far as "MCAs" are concerned in CA, they are super strict on disclosure notice - although I've read in some places they admit that "APR" can technically not be calculated for a MCA, and if we're being honest "APR" theoretically does not even apply to a MCA product from a financial standpoint, but who knows? CA also appears to be super strict on MCA companies abiding by their specified percentage / reconciliation clauses in order for the contract to be valid.
https://dfpi.ca.gov/2020/04/06/advis...nce-contracts/
https://dfpi.ca.gov/wp-content/uploa...-Group-LLC.pdf
A lot of info in this, just search "merchant cash"
https://dfpi.ca.gov/wp-content/uploa...01-18-RBLC.pdf
Anthony are you funding Cali now ?
We are still funding MCA credit card split deals in California. We remit via Lockbox or direct split relationship with several credit card processors.
The disclosure provision which is a huge element of the law is unenforceable when it comes to the product we sell because of variations in sales patterns creating variations in payment thus you can’t disclose what you don’t know in terms of how many payments, the amount of payments or the payment term. MCA ACH deals would have more of an issue with the law due to fixed payment arrangements. This is another advantage of using our credit card sales based product.