(a) “Pawnbroker” means any person engaged in whole or in part in the business of lending money on the security of pledged goods left in pawn, or in the business of purchasing tangible personal property to be left in pawn on the condition that it may be redeemed or repurchased by the seller for a fixed price within a fixed period of time; provided, however, that the following are exempt from the definition of “pawnbroker” and from the provisions of this article: any bank which is regulated by the State Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any other federal or state authority and all affiliates of such bank, and additionally any bank or savings and loan association whose deposits or accounts are eligible for insurance by the Bank Insurance Fund or the Savings Association Insurance Fund or other fund administered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any successor thereto, and all affiliates of such banks and savings and loan associations, any state or federally chartered credit union and any finance company subject to licensing and regulation by the State Department of Banking and Consumer Finance.

(b) “Pawnshop” means the location at which or premises in which a pawnbroker regularly conducts business.

(c) “Pawn transaction” means any loan on the security of pledged goods or any purchase of pledged goods on the condition that the pledged goods are left with the pawnbroker and may be redeemed or repurchased by the seller for a fixed price within a fixed period of time. A “pawn transaction” does not include the pledge to or the purchase by a pawnbroker of real or personal property from a customer followed by the sale of the leasing of that same property back to the customer in the same or a related transaction and such is not permitted by this article.

(d) “Person” means an individual, partnership, corporation, joint venture, trust, association, or any legal entity however organized.

(e) “Pledged goods” means tangible personal property other than choses in action, securities, or printed evidence of indebtedness, which property is purchased by, deposited with, or otherwise actually delivered into the possession of a pawnbroker in connection with a pawn transaction.

(f) “Commissioner” means the Mississippi Commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance, or his designee, as the designated official for the purpose of enforcing this article.

(g) “Appropriate law enforcement agency” means the sheriff of each county in which the pawnbroker maintains an office, or the police chief of the municipality or law enforcement officers of the Department of Public Safety in which the pawnbroker maintains an office.

(h) “Attorney General” means the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi.

(i) “Records” or “documents” means any item in hard copy or produced in a format of storage commonly described as electronic, imaged, magnetic, microphotographic or otherwise, and any reproduction so made shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof and be admitted in evidence equally with the original.