License applications must include specified fees, financial documents, and a surety bond or letter of credit, and the commissioner may require criminal background checks and fingerprints.
Each application for a license shall be accompanied by: A filing fee of five hundred dollars ($500), which shall not be subject to refund but which, if the license is granted, shall constitute the license fee for the first license year or part thereof; provided, however, that if a supervision fee is established pursuant to § 45-1-118, the commissioner shall require applicants under this chapter to, instead, pay the nonrefundable supervision fee in place of the filing fee. The filing fee or supervision fee shall be applicable to each location; An audited financial statement, including, but not limited to, a balance sheet, a statement of income or loss, and a statement of changes in financial position, for the immediately preceding fiscal year end, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles by a certified public accountant or public accounting firm, neither of which is affiliated with the applicant. For a newly created entity, the commissioner may accept only a balance sheet prepared by a certified public accountant or public accounting firm, neither of which is affiliated with the applicant, accompanied by a projected income statement demonstrating that the applicant will have adequate capital after payment of start-up costs; and A surety bond, issued by an insurer regulated under title 56 and not affiliated with the applicant, in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for each location. However, in no event shall the aggregate amount of the surety bond required for a single licensee exceed two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000). In lieu of the surety bond, the applicant shall file an irrevocable letter of credit, in the amount of the surety bond, issued by any federally insured bank, savings bank or credit union, none of which is affiliated with the applicant. The surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit shall be in a form satisfactory to the commissioner and shall be payable to the commissioner for the benefit of any person who is injured pursuant to a flex loan plan by the fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract, financial failure or violation of any provision of this chapter by a licensee. In the case of a surety bond, the aggregate liability of the surety bond shall not exceed the principal sum of the surety bond. In the case of an irrevocable letter of credit, applicants shall obtain letters of credit for terms of not less than three (3) years and renew the letters of credit annually. If the licensee fails to pay a person or the commissioner as required by this chapter, then a person may bring suit against the licensee directly on the surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit in any court of competent jurisdiction, or the commissioner may bring suit in the chancery court of Davidson County on behalf of those persons, in either one (1) or successive actions. The surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit shall be maintained by the licensee for not less than three (3) years following the expiration, revocation, or surrender of the licensee's license. The commissioner is authorized to require an applicant for a license to consent to a criminal history records check and to provide with the application fingerprints in a form acceptable to the commissioner. The commissioner may require such consent and fingerprints from any individual who is a director, officer, or ten percent (10%) or more shareholder of the applicant or who owns or controls the applicant, as well as from any other individual associated with the applicant as is reasonably necessary to meet the purposes of this chapter. Refusal of any person to consent to a criminal history records check or to provide fingerprints pursuant to this subsection (b) constitutes grounds for the commissioner to deny the applicant a license. Any criminal history records check conducted pursuant to this subsection (b) shall be conducted by the Tennessee bureau of investigation, the federal bureau of investigation, or both, and the results of the criminal history records check shall be forwarded to the commissioner. All costs incurred in conducting the criminal history records check shall be paid by the applicant, in addition to any other fees required by this chapter.