2023 New Hampshire Revised Statutes › Title XXXIII-A - Retail Installment Sales › Chapter 361-A - Retail Installment Sales of Motor Vehicles › Section 361-A:1 - Definitions.

361-A:1 Definitions. –
The following terms as used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:
I. "Balloon payment" means any retail installment contract repayment option under which:
(a) The retail buyer is required to repay the entire amount of any outstanding balance as of a specified date or at the end of a specified period of time, as determined in accordance with the terms of the retail installment contract pursuant to which the credit is extended;
(b) The aggregate amount of the minimum periodic payments required would not fully amortize such outstanding balance by such date or at the end of such period; and
(c) The balloon payment is at least twice the amount of one periodic installment payment under a payment plan that provides for equal periodic installment payments during the term of the balloon contract that precedes the due date of the final balloon payment.
II. "Balloon retail installment contract" or "balloon contract" means a retail installment contract that contains a balloon payment feature.
II-a. "Branch office" means a business location within this state of a person required to be licensed under this chapter. "Branch office" does not include a person's principal office location.
III. "Cash sale price" means the price stated in a retail installment contract for which the seller would have sold to the buyer, and the buyer would have bought from the seller, the motor vehicle which is the subject matter of the retail installment contract, if such sale had been a sale for cash instead of a retail installment transaction. The cash sale price may include any taxes, registration, license and other fees, and charges for accessories and their installation and for delivery, servicing, repairing, or improving the motor vehicle.
III-a. "Commissioner" means the bank commissioner.
III-b. "Control" means the power, directly or indirectly, to direct the management or policies of a company, whether through ownership of securities, by contract, or otherwise. Any person is presumed to control a company if such person:
(a) Is a director, general partner, or executive officer;
(b) Directly or indirectly has the right to vote 10 percent or more of a class of a voting security or membership interest, or has the power to sell or direct the sale of 10 percent or more of a class of voting securities or membership interest;
(c) In the case of a limited liability company, is a managing member; or
(d) In the case of a partnership, has the right to receive upon dissolution, or has contributed, 10 percent or more of the capital.
III-c. "Department" means the banking department.
III-d. "Direct owner" means any person, including individuals, that owns, beneficially owns, has the right to vote, or has the power to sell or direct the sale of 10 percent or more of the applicant or licensee.
IV. "Documentary fees" mean the fees for filing, recording or investigating, perfecting and releasing or satisfying a retained title or a lien created by a retail installment contract, and shall not exceed the actual cost assessed by the department of safety, division of motor vehicles, or other state or local agency for filing, recording or investigating, perfecting and releasing or satisfying such title or lien.
V. "Finance charge" means the amount agreed upon between the buyer and the seller, as limited in this chapter, to be added to the cash sale price, the amount, if any, included for insurance and other benefits, if a separate charge is made therefor, and documentary fees, in determining the time price.
V-a. "Financial services" or "financial services-related" means securities, commodities, banking, insurance, consumer lending, money transmission, debt adjustment, or real estate, including, but not limited to, acting as or being associated with a bank or savings association, credit union, mortgage lender, mortgage broker, mortgage servicer, real estate salesperson or agent, closing agent, title company, or escrow agent.
VI. The "holder" of a retail installment contract means the retail seller of the motor vehicle under or subject to the contract or, if the contract is purchased by a sales finance company or other assignee, the sales finance company or other assignee.
VI-a. "Indirect owner" means, with respect to direct owners and other indirect owners in a multilayered organization:
(a) In the case of an owner that is a corporation, each of its shareholders that beneficially owns, has the right to vote, or has the power to sell or direct the sale of, 25 percent or more of that corporation.
(b) In the case of an owner that is a partnership, all general partners and those limited and special partners that have the right to receive upon dissolution, or have contributed, 25 percent or more of the partnership's capital.
(c) In the case of an owner that is a trust, the trust, each trustee and each beneficiary of 25 percent or more of the trust.
(d) In the case of an owner that is a limited liability company ("LLC"):
(1) Those members that have the right to receive upon dissolution, or have contributed, 25 percent or more of the LLC's capital; and
(2) If managed by elected managers, all elected managers.
(e) In the case of an indirect owner, the parent owners of 25 percent or more of their subsidiary.
VII. "Motor vehicle" means any device propelled or drawn by any power other than muscular power, in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting power shovels, road machinery, buses, agricultural machinery, house and boat trailers, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, and similar recreational vehicles designed primarily for off-road use.
VII-a. "Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry" means a national licensing system and facility developed and maintained by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, or their successors, for the licensing and registration of mortgage loan originators, mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers, mortgage brokers, and other non-depository financial service licensees, including retail sellers and sales finance companies.
VIII. "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, and any other group however organized.
VIII-a. "Principal" of the applicant or licensee means an owner with 10 percent or more ownership interest, corporate officer, director, member, general or limited liability partner, limited partner with 10 percent or more ownership interest, trustee, beneficiary of 10 percent or more of the trust that owns the applicant or licensee, indirect owner, senior manager, New Hampshire branch manager, and any person occupying similar status or performing similar functions.
VIII-b. "Principal office" means the main office location of a person required to be licensed under this chapter.
VIII-c. "Publicly traded" means a company whose securities are traded on a securities exchange system approved and supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the NYSE, AMEX, BSE, and NASDAQ. The term also includes a public reporting company that is subject to sections 12 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
IX. "Retail buyer" or "buyer" means a person who buys a motor vehicle from a retail seller and who executes a retail installment contract either with the retail seller or with any lender.
X. "Retail installment contract" or "contract" means an agreement pursuant to which the title to, the property in, or a lien upon the motor vehicle, which is the subject matter of a retail installment transaction, is retained or taken by a sales finance company indirectly from a retail seller or directly from a retail buyer, as security, in whole or in part, for the retail buyer's obligation. The term includes a promissory note, security agreement, finance agreement, chattel mortgage, conditional sales contract, title loan agreement, rent-to-own agreement, and contract for the bailment or leasing of a motor vehicle, any of which constitutes a "credit sale" under Federal Reserve Board Regulation Z, Truth-in-Lending, 12 C.F.R. 226, as amended from time to time, and a lease as defined in RSA 361-D (except as limited by RSA 361-A:7-a).
XI. "Retail installment transaction" means any consumer credit transaction as defined in RSA 358-K:1, V, evidenced by a retail installment contract entered into between a retail buyer and a retail seller, or between a sales finance company and a retail buyer, wherein the retail buyer buys a motor vehicle subject to a retail installment contract at a time price payable in one or more deferred installments. The cash sale price of the motor vehicle, the amount included for insurance and other benefits if a separate charge is made therefor, documentary fees, and the finance charge, which may include insurance and other benefits, shall together constitute the time price.
XII. "Retail seller" or "seller" means a person who sells a motor vehicle in this state subject to a retail installment contract.
XIII. "Sales finance company" means a person engaged, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, in the business of providing motor vehicle financing in this state to one or more retail buyers, or in the business of purchasing retail installment contracts from one or more retail sellers. The term includes but is not limited to any state or federally chartered bank, savings bank, trust company, credit union, cooperative bank, finance company, lending agency, industrial bank, or investment company, if so engaged. The term does not include the pledgee of an aggregate number of such contracts to secure a bona fide loan thereon, or other persons not within the intent of this chapter as the commissioner may designate by rule or order, nor does it include a licensed retail seller who:
(a) Makes a retail installment contract and assigns such contract either within 5 business days, if the contract requires monthly payments, or within 2 business days, if the contract requires payments more frequently than monthly, of the contract's execution by the retail buyer and retail seller; or
(b) Makes 4 or fewer retail installment contracts in any year; or
(c) Makes retail installment contracts to employees for the purchases of motor vehicles solely from the retail seller employer.
XIV. [Repealed.]
Source.
1961, 193:1. 1980, 501:1. 1991, 98:1. 1995, 63:1, 2. 1997, 322:1. 2003, 129:1-3, 15, I. 2004, 139:1, 2. 2005, 255:74, 75. 2006, 303:1-4. 2008, 205:1, 2, eff. Aug. 15, 2008. 2009, 204:26, 30, eff. Sept. 13, 2009. 2018, 196:1, eff. Aug. 7, 2018. 2021, 194:1, eff. Oct. 9, 2021.