GA Code § 7-3-2 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 7 - Banking and Finance|Chapter 3 - Installment Loans|Article 1 - General Provisions|§ 7-3-2. Transfer to Department of Banking and Finance

  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.   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to this chapter shall remain in full force and effect as rules, orders, and actions of the department unless amended, repealed, or superseded by rule, order, or action of the department.   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.    (Ga. L. 1955, p. 431, § 2; Ga. L. 1975, p. 393, § 1; Ga. L. 2020, p. 156, § 2/SB 462.)    The 2020 amendment,  effective June 30, 2020, rewrote the section, which read: "The purpose of this chapter is to authorize and provide regulation of the business of making loans of $3,000.00 or less and to bring within the regulation of this chapter and within its provisions all loans of $3,000.00 or less, whether or not made by a person organized or operating under the provisions and authority of some other statute, except those persons and loans expressly exempted by the terms of this chapter. Even though authorized by other statutes of force, such loans and the persons making them, unless expressly exempted, shall be within the operation of this chapter in accordance with its terms." See Editor's notes at the beginning of this chapter for applicability.   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.