As used in the Uniform Money Services Act:

A. "applicant" means a person that files an application for a license pursuant to the Uniform Money Services Act;

B. "authorized delegate" means a person that a licensee designates to provide money services on behalf of the licensee;

C. "bank" means an institution organized under federal or state law that:

(1) accepts demand deposits or deposits that the depositor may use for payment to third parties and engages in the business of making commercial loans; or

(2) engages in credit card operations and maintains only one office that accepts deposits, does not accept demand deposits or deposits that the depositor may use for payments to third parties, does not accept a savings or time deposit less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) and does not engage in the business of making commercial loans;

D. "check cashing" means receiving compensation for taking payment instruments or stored value, other than traveler's checks, in exchange for money, payment instruments or stored value delivered to the person delivering the payment instrument or stored value at the time and place of delivery without an agreement specifying when the person taking the payment instrument will present it for collection;

E. "control" means:

(1) ownership of, or the power to vote, directly or indirectly, at least twenty-five percent of a class of voting securities or voting interests of a licensee or person in control of a licensee;

(2) the power to elect, appoint, choose or otherwise designate, directly or indirectly, a majority of executive officers, managers, directors, trustees or other persons exercising managerial authority of a licensee or person in control of a licensee; or

(3) the power to exercise, directly or indirectly, a controlling influence over the management or policies of a licensee or person in control of a licensee;

F. "currency exchange" means receipt of revenues from the exchange of money of one government for money of another government;

G. "director" means the director of the financial institutions division of the regulation and licensing department;

H. "electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities;

I. "executive officer" means a president, chair of the executive committee, chief financial officer, responsible individual or other individual who performs similar functions;

J. "internet-based money services business" means a business that provides money transmission, check cashing or currency exchange services to residents of New Mexico through the internet;

K. "licensee" means a person licensed pursuant to the Uniform Money Services Act;

L. "limited station" means private premises where a check casher is authorized to engage in check cashing solely for the employees of the particular employer or group of employers specified in the check casher's license application;

M. "mobile location" means a vehicle or a movable facility where check cashing occurs;

N. "monetary value" means a medium of exchange, whether or not redeemable in money;

O. "money" means a medium of exchange that is authorized or adopted by the United States or a foreign government. "Money" includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more governments;

P. "money services" means money transmission, check cashing or currency exchange;

Q. "money transmission" means selling or issuing payment instruments, stored value or receiving money or monetary value for transmission. "Money transmission" does not include the provision solely of delivery, online or telecommunications services or network access;

R. "nationwide multistate licensing system and registry" means a licensing system developed and maintained by the conference of state bank supervisors and the American association of residential mortgage regulators pursuant to the federal Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 to manage mortgage licenses and other financial services licenses, or a successor registry;

S. "outstanding", with respect to a payment instrument, means issued or sold by or for the licensee and reported as sold but not yet paid by or for the licensee;

T. "payment instrument" means a check, draft, money order, traveler's check or other instrument for the transmission or payment of money or monetary value, whether or not negotiable. "Payment instrument" does not include a credit card voucher, letter of credit or instrument that is redeemable by the issuer in goods or services;

U. "person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation or any other legal or commercial entity;

V. "record", when used as a noun, means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form;

W. "responsible individual" means an individual who is employed by a licensee and has principal managerial authority over the provision of money services by the licensee in New Mexico;

X. "sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

(1) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

(2) to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol or process;

Y. "state" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States;

Z. "stored value" means monetary value that is evidenced by an electronic record;

AA. "unique identifier" means a number or other identifier assigned by protocols established by the nationwide multistate licensing system and registry; and

BB. "unsafe or unsound practice" means a practice or conduct by a person licensed to engage in money transmission or an authorized delegate of such a person that creates the likelihood of material loss, insolvency or dissipation of the licensee's assets, or otherwise materially prejudices the interests of its customers.

History: Laws 2016, ch. 88, § 102; 2019, ch. 144, § 17.

Cross references. — For the federal Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, see 12 USC §§ 5101 to 5116.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, replaced "nationwide mortgage licensing system and registry" with "nationwide multistate licensing system and registry" as a defined term, and made conforming changes to the definition of "unique identifier", as used in the Uniform Money Services Act; in Subsection R, after "nationwide", deleted "mortgage" and added "multistate"; and in Subsection AA, after "nationwide", deleted "mortgage" and added "multistate".