(a) A licensee may sell promissory notes evidencing the obligation to repay loans made by the licensee pursuant to this division or evidencing the obligation to repay loans purchased from and made by another licensee pursuant to this division to institutional investors, and may make agreements with institutional investors for the collection of payments or the performance of services with respect to those notes.

(b) For the purposes of this section, “institutional investor” means the following:

(1) The United States or any state, district, territory, or commonwealth thereof, or any city, county, city and county, public district, public authority, public corporation, public entity, or political subdivision of a state, district, territory, or commonwealth of the United States, or any agency or other instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing.

(2) Any bank, trust company, savings bank or savings and loan association, credit union, industrial bank or industrial loan company, finance lender, or insurance company doing business under the authority of and in accordance with a license, certificate, or charter issued by the United States or any state, district, territory, or commonwealth of the United States.

(3) Trustees of pension, profit sharing, or welfare funds, if the pension, profit sharing, or welfare fund has a net worth of not less than fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000), except pension, profit sharing, or welfare funds of a licensee or its affiliate, self-employed individual retirement plans, or individual retirement accounts.

(4) Any corporation with outstanding securities registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or any wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation; provided, however, that the purchaser represents that it is purchasing for its own account for investment and not with a view to or for sale in connection with any distribution of the promissory note.

(5) Any syndication or other combination of any of the foregoing that is organized to purchase the promissory note.

(6) A trust or other business entity established by an institutional investor for the purpose of issuing or facilitating the issuance of undivided interests in, the right to receive payments from, or that are payable primarily from, a pool of financial assets held by the trust or business entity if all of the following apply:

(A) The business entity is not a sole proprietorship.

(B) The pool of assets consists of one or more of the following:

(i) Interest bearing obligations.

(ii) Other contractual obligations representing the right to receive payments from the assets.

(iii) Surety bonds, insurance policies, letters of credit, or other instruments providing credit enhancements for these assets.

(C) The interests will be either of the following:

(i) Rated investment grade by Standard & Poor’s Corporation or Moody’s Investors Service, Inc.   “Investment grade” means that the securities will be rated by Standard & Poor’s Corporation as AAA, AA, A, or BBB, or by Moody’s Investor Service, Inc., as Aaa, Aa, A, or Baa, including a rating with a “+” or “–” designation or other variations that occur within these ratings.

(ii) Sold to an institutional investor as otherwise defined in this section.

(D) The offer and sale of the securities is qualified under the Corporate Securities Law of 1968 (Division 1 (commencing with Section 25000) of Title 4 of the Corporations Code) or is registered under federal securities laws, or is exempt from qualification or registration.

(c) In the absence of agreement to the contrary by the licensee and the institutional investor, all payments received from the collection of payments shall be deposited and maintained in a trust account, and shall be disbursed from the trust account only in accordance with the instructions of the owner of the promissory note.

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 672, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1997.)