Are You A Money Transmitter In Florida?

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation ("OFR") has rejected a petition for a declaratory statement seeking confirmation that payment processing activity involving the receipt of funds and transmission of such funds does not require a Florida money transmission license. In doing so, the OFR has indicated that it does not believe that the Florida money transmission law exempts an "agent of a payee."

The Petition for Declaratory Statement

TandP, LLC ("TandP"), a payment processor, petitioned for a declaratory statement (the "Petition") from the OFR affirming that its payment processing activities do not constitute money transmission under Florida law and that TandP would not require a Florida money transmission license. In the Petition, TandP set forth two payment processing models: (1) data processing, and (2) payment processing. In both models, the merchant (i.e., the payee) appoints TandP as its agent pursuant to a written merchant agreement. Based on the