(a) The commissioner may examine the operations of each licensee and each finder to ensure that the activities of the licensee and the finder are in compliance with this article. The costs of the commissioner’s examination of each finder shall be attributed to the commissioner’s examination of the licensee. Any violation of this article by a finder or a finder’s employee shall be attributed to the finance lender with whom it has entered into an agreement for purposes of determining the licensee’s compliance with this division.

(b) Upon a determination that a finder has acted in violation of this article, or any implementing regulation, or upon a determination that it would be warranted by the data reported to the commissioner pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 22375 for any finder, the commissioner may disqualify a finder from performing services under this article, bar a finder from performing services at one or more specific locations of that finder, terminate a written agreement between a finder and a licensee, and, if the commissioner deems that action in the public interest, prohibit the use of that finder by all licensees accepted to participate in the pilot program.

(c) In addition to any other penalty allowed by law, the commissioner may impose an administrative penalty up to two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for violations of this article committed by a finder.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 505, Sec. 6. (SB 235) Effective January 1, 2016. Repealed as of January 1, 2023, pursuant to Section 22381.)