DelawareSB 18153rd General Assembly (2024–2026)Senate

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 5 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MONEY TRANSMISSION.

Sponsored By: Spiros Mantzavinos (Democratic)

Signed by Governor

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

18 provisions identified: 9 benefits, 1 costs, 8 mixed.

Bond protection for money-transfer customers

Each licensee must file a $100,000–$500,000 corporate surety bond, with the amount set by the Commissioner using liabilities, finances, and other factors. The bond protects the State and consumers’ actual losses from specified wrongdoing, excluding business creditors, specified service providers, and associated people. The surety must notify the Commissioner of claims and await payment authorization; claims must be paid within 90 days, with daily legal-rate interest for lateness. Cancellation requires at least 30 days’ written notice, and the Commissioner must submit claims within two years after cancellation or termination. The bond cannot expire before the license; firms carrying the maximum bond need not calculate average daily transmission liability.

Stronger protection for customers’ virtual currency

Licensed companies holding customers’ virtual currency must keep enough of each type to cover what customers are owed. That currency belongs to customers, not the company, and the company’s creditors cannot claim it. If holdings fall short, customers share the available currency in proportion to what they are owed, regardless of when their claims arose. Customer currency also counts as an eligible investment under state rules.

Clearer receipts for money-transfer customers

For covered personal transfers, licensed companies and their agents must give you a receipt. It must list the parties, date, transaction number, dollar amount, fees, taxes, and company name, licensing ID, address, and phone number. Receipts must use English and every other language mainly used at that location to advertise or negotiate transfers. Electronic receipts must be retainable; for in-person transfers, you must request or agree to an electronic receipt. The rule excludes payroll, non-household transfers, federal Remittance Rule transactions, and goods-or-services payments processed under written payee agreements.

Clearer terms for virtual-currency customers

Before starting a customer relationship, licensed virtual-currency companies must give separate, clear disclosures in plain language you can keep. Applicable disclosures cover fees and calculations, deposit or private insurance, guarantees, irreversible transfers, timing, and responsibility for errors or unauthorized transactions. They must explain stop-payment or authorization-cancellation rights, transaction proof, and that virtual currency is not money. Customers must receive at least 30 days’ advance notice of specified fee or term changes. Confirmations must show transaction type, value, date, precise time, amount, fees, and company contacts; daily combined confirmations require advance disclosure.

Refund rights for money-transfer customers

Licensed companies must send your money as agreed, unless they reasonably suspect fraud, crime, or another legal violation. If you ask about a delay, they must explain unless the law bars an answer. For covered transfers, they must refund all money received for transmission within 10 days of your written request. This refund rule excludes transfers covered by the federal Remittance Rule and goods-or-services payments processed under written payee agreements. Other exceptions include forwarding or committing an equivalent amount within 10 days, agreed later forwarding, suspected crime, or missing identifying details.

Paystub access for covered payroll workers

Licensed money-transfer companies handling payroll must make workers’ paystubs or similar statements available. They must also give clients reports showing payroll obligations before payroll money is deducted from an account. These duties do not apply when the client names the intended recipients and takes responsibility for worker disclosures. The law does not change wage amounts.

Money transfers cannot bypass licensing rules

In Delaware, no one may handle money transfers for a provider that is neither licensed nor legally exempt. Anyone who breaks this rule is treated as providing money transmission, just like a licensed provider. Both parties share legal responsibility, and either can be held responsible for the full obligation.

Shared licensing systems with privacy safeguards

The Commissioner may join an automated licensing system with other states. Its administrator may collect fees and application information, keep records, and submit fingerprints for background checks. Information sharing is limited to participating states’ licensing, regulation, or supervision needs and information those states can legally obtain themselves. System policies must follow Delaware confidentiality, privacy, data-security, and breach-notification laws.

Transition time for transfer and payroll providers

The act takes effect on enactment, with implementation by one year later or notice of final regulations, whichever comes first. Existing licensees are exempt from conflicting or newly imposed requirements until the later of current-license renewal or 12 months after effectiveness. Agent contracts follow the new amendment requirements when entered into or amended after effectiveness, or once that transition ends. Unlicensed payroll processors avoid violating the licensing prohibition by applying within six months after effectiveness or by April 1, 2027, whichever is later. The payroll grace period does not remove the licensing requirement.

License fees for money-transfer businesses

Money-transfer license applicants pay a non-refundable $172.50 investigation fee when applying. The initial license and each annual renewal cost $230, plus $4.60 for each Delaware authorized-agent location beyond the first. The initial license fee is due upon approval. Renewal fees cannot be paid more than 60 days before the license expires. These are business fees, not direct charges on household customers.

Approval and shortcuts for transmitter buyers

Buyers taking control generally need written approval, licensee cooperation, fitness review, new-key-person information, and a non-refundable $172.50 investigation fee. Exemptions cover specified proxy voting, inheritance, fiduciary acquisitions, exempt persons, public offerings, and reorganizations keeping the ultimate controller unchanged; specified exempt acquisitions require notice within 15 days. Eligible buyers use a notice process deemed approved unless rejected within 30 days after the Commissioner finds the notice complete. Buyers must attest to no specified suspension or revocation history over five years, required financial backing, no material business-plan changes, and satisfactory management and compliance when already licensed. People may request a control determination; ordinary key-person appointments without control are excluded, and the Commissioner may accept qualifying lead-state investigations.

Financial backing rules for money transmitters

Licensees must always maintain tangible net worth equal to the greater of $100,000 or a tiered asset calculation. The calculation adds 3% of the first $100 million, 2% above $100 million through $1 billion, and 0.5% above $1 billion. Financial statements must show compliance; the Commissioner may grant full or partial exemptions for good cause. Virtual-currency licensees may count their own currency using its average dollar value over six months, but cannot count protected customer currency. Licensees must also keep eligible investments with market value covering all outstanding transfer obligations, measured under U.S. accounting standards and state regulations.

Fund safeguards and limits for agents

Before appointing agents, licensees need written compliance policies, signed contracts, and reasonable risk-based background checks. Contracts must address legal compliance, fund handling, records, responsibilities, and consent to regulatory examination. Agents hold transfer money, minus fees, in trust for the licensee; mixing it with other property creates a trust up to that amount. Agents cannot appoint subagents. When a license is suspended, revoked, surrendered, or expires, agents must stop immediately, and the licensee must document agent notification within five business days.

Licenses and exemptions for money-transfer providers

Delaware requires licenses to provide or advertise covered transfers, payment instruments, stored value, payroll processing, and virtual-currency services for others. Contracted authorized agents need no separate license; providers may use location records for online or phone transactions. Exemptions cover specified banks, governments, payment systems, benefit transfers, securities activities, employees, and contracted providers, with agreement and responsibility requirements. A qualifying collection agent needs a written payee agreement, and the payer’s debt ends when the agent receives payment. Virtual-currency exemptions include personal or academic use, noncustodial technology, unpaid services, qualifying escrow or regulated intermediaries, lawful lien enforcement, and activity reasonably expected to total no more than $5,000 annually; the Commissioner may grant exemptions or require proof.

Recordkeeping and reporting for transfer businesses

Licensees and applicable agents must keep business and transaction records for periods set by regulation. Required reports include financial condition, income, agent information, audited statements, and events specified by the Commissioner. They must meet currency and anti-money-laundering reporting rules; timely, complete, accurate reports to the proper federal agency satisfy this state reporting requirement. Virtual-currency records must remain available for at least five years after the activity. Those records include customer verification, transaction details and confirmations, 12-month totals, exchanges, monthly ledgers, bank reconciliations, disputes, and failed transactions, in a form regulators can check.

Review deadlines for transmitter leadership changes

A money transmitter must report a new or replacement key person within 15 days after the appointment takes effect. It must provide the required information within 45 days. The Commissioner has 90 days after finding the notice complete to disapprove the person based on competence, experience, character, or integrity. Without disapproval during that period, the person is deemed approved.

Screening and renewal rules for transmitters

Applicants must provide business information; the Commissioner reviews finances and fitness, may require fingerprints, and may inspect at the applicant’s expense. Applicants and key people must meet public-interest standards, and licensees must keep meeting licensing requirements or face suspension or revocation. Initial licenses expire December 31 of the approval year, except November 1–December 31 approvals last through the following year. Renewals run January 1–December 31 and require an application, fee, and previously unreported material changes. Applications received fewer than 30 days before expiration may be treated as new; the Commissioner may extend deadlines for good cause or deny renewal for ignoring supervisory directions.

State checks and discipline for transmitters

The Commissioner examines licensees annually or at intervals deemed necessary and can inspect their operations, assets, and records. Licensees must pay outside examination costs within 10 days after receiving the Commissioner’s bill. Listed grounds for license suspension, revocation, or agent removal include noncompliance, failure to cooperate, fraud, abusive practices, money-laundering violations, lack of fitness, unsafe practices, and insolvency. The Commissioner can also suspend or revoke agents’ designations for listed violations or unsafe conduct, considering losses, seriousness, and prior conduct. Agents may seek relief through Delaware’s administrative process.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Spiros Mantzavinos
Democratic • Senate

Cosponsors

William Bush
Democratic • House
Kerri Evelyn Harris
Democratic • House
Brian Pettyjohn
Republican • Senate
Jeffrey N. Spiegelman
Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 79 • No: 0

Senate vote • 6/24/2026

Passed (3/4 required)

Yes: 21 • No: 0

House vote • 6/18/2026

Passed (2/3 required)

Yes: 38 • No: 0

Senate vote • 5/5/2026