The Florida Senate

687.12  Interest rates; parity among licensed lenders or creditors.--

(1)  Any lender or creditor licensed or chartered under the provisions of chapter 516, chapter 520, chapter 657, chapter 658 or former chapter 659, former chapter 664 or former chapter 656, chapter 665, or part XV of chapter 627; any lender or creditor located in the State of Florida and licensed or chartered under the laws of the United States and authorized to conduct a lending business; or any lender or creditor lending through a licensee under ss. 494.006-494.0077, shall be authorized to charge interest on loans or extensions of credit to any person as defined in s. 1.01(3), or to any firm or corporation, at the maximum rate of interest permitted by law to be charged on similar loans or extensions of credit made by any lender or creditor in the State of Florida, except that the statutes governing the maximum permissible interest rate on any loan or extension of credit, and other statutory restrictions relating thereto, shall also govern the amount, term, permissible charges, rebate requirements, and restrictions for a similar loan or extension of credit made by any lender or creditor.

(2)  This section shall be construed to permit any lender or creditor which is otherwise authorized to make a particular loan or extension of credit to charge interest at a rate permitted to be charged by other lenders or creditors on similar loans or extensions of credit, but shall not be construed to grant any lender or creditor the power or authority to make any particular type of loan or extension of credit which it is not otherwise authorized to make. For purposes of this section, direct loans for the purchase of goods or services, and extensions of credit for the acquisition of goods or services by the seller or provider thereof, shall be deemed to be similar loans or extensions of credit.

(3)  In making loans or extensions of credit, lenders or creditors shall be subject only to the licenses, examinations, regulations, documents, procedures, and disclosures required by the respective laws under which each lender or creditor is licensed or organized, and not to those required by laws governing other lenders or creditors.

(4)  In making loans or extensions of credit at a rate of interest that, but for this section, would not be authorized, lenders or creditors shall indicate on the promissory note or other instrument evidencing the loan or extension of credit the specific chapter of the Florida Statutes authorizing the interest rate charged.

History.--s. 1, ch. 77-371; s. 259, ch. 79-400; s. 474, ch. 81-259; s. 60, ch. 91-245; s. 206, ch. 92-303.