H289 - North Carolina Money Transmitters Act. (SL 2016-81)

Overview: S.L. 2016-81 modernizes and clarifies the Money Transmitters Act (MTA) and replaces the statutes incorporating much of the existing law, as requested by the Office of the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. The main changes to the MTA are as follows:

• It specifically addresses the transmission of virtual currency, such as Bitcoin. These payment systems are currently subject to the act, but industry has requested clarification of the law to take into account the changes that have occurred since the law was written.
• It excludes certain business-to-business money transmission activity.
• It revises the cost structure by replacing the examination fee and the annual renewal fee with an annual assessment based on North Carolina transmission volume.
• It converts the annual license into a perpetual license.

When the bill was first introduced during the 2015 Session, the effective date was October 1, 2015. The bill failed to pass during the 2015 Session and was enacted during the 2016 Session. However, the effective date was not changed and, therefore, the act became effective on October 1, 2015. It was not intended for the act to have a retroactive effective date, and the bill sponsor attempted to rectify the date in the Technical Corrections bill (Sec. 49 of S821), but that bill did not pass. The Commissioner of Banks has indicated that, with regard to any fee or assessment changes, it will not retroactively assess the industry and will treat the effective date as if it were October 1, 2016. It is anticipated that the effective will be corrected in a technical bill in the 2017 Session.