This bill creates a new chapter in Title 31 RCW, titled the "Washington state earned wage access services act," establishing a licensing and regulatory framework for businesses that provide earned wage access services. Under the new law, persons offering earned wage access services in Washington must obtain and maintain a license (with limited statutory exemptions) beginning July 1, 2026. The department of financial institutions and its director administer licensing, accept applications through the nationwide mortgage licensing system or a director-prescribed form, may require fingerprints and criminal-history checks (including nonconviction data), must decide complete applications within 90 days, and may require a surety bond with a minimum penal sum of $30,000 or, for Washington business corporations, an alternative capital/debt demonstration as defined by the director. The statute includes lookback limits for prior revocations/suspensions and certain convictions, and permits the director to waive or substitute application requirements in specific cases. The bill imposes operational requirements, consumer-facing disclosures, recordkeeping and reporting duties (including an annual sworn report filed by July 1 with a $50-per-day late penalty), and an annual assessment due March 1. It caps per-transaction delivery or expedited delivery fees at $5.00 (adjusted for inflation every five years), directs fee and penalty revenues to the financial services regulation fund, and lists prohibited acts and consumer protections. The director has broad enforcement authority: to deny, condition, suspend, or revoke licenses; to impose administrative fines up to $100 per day per violation; to issue cease-and-desist and temporary orders (with specified hearing timelines); to order refunds or restitution; to remove persons from participation in a licensee’s affairs; to investigate and examine licensees (including court-approved subpoena authority); and to recover the state’s costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. The chapter also specifies that earned wage access services provided in compliance with the chapter are not treated as loans, credit, money transmission, or interest-bearing finance for state-law purposes, and that the chapter controls in case of conflict with other statutes. The bill creates a new criminal provision for failures described in the act: a person who fails to perform a duty under the chapter for which no penalty has otherwise been prescribed is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. Administrative proceedings and appeals under the chapter are governed by the Administrative Procedure Act (chapter 34.05 RCW), and the director must suspend an individual license immediately upon DSHS certification of noncompliance with a support order, with automatic reissuance upon DSHS release if other reinstatement conditions were met. Important text is missing from the extracted material: the new chapter number in Title 31 RCW, the full text of some referenced sections (notably section 4 and parts cut off mid-sentence), specific dollar amounts for investigation or license fees, and additional rules or penalty details that likely appear in omitted sections.

If enacted, companies that advance workers’ earned pay will need to be licensed by the state starting July 1, 2026 and will face upfront and ongoing compliance costs: fingerprinting and background checks, an approved surety bond of at least $30,000 (or a capital/debt alternative for Washington corporations), application and annual assessment fees, annual sworn reporting, three-year record retention, and possible costs from regulatory exams. Their business choices will be constrained by a $5 cap on per-transaction delivery fees (adjusted for inflation every five years), bans on certain fee-sharing and collection practices, and the risk of fines (up to $100 per day), cease-and-desist orders, suspension or revocation of licenses, and immediate suspension for individuals certified by DSHS as out of compliance with support orders. The Department of Financial Institutions will take on licensing, oversight, investigations, and enforcement funded by the fees and penalties it collects, which go into the state’s financial services regulation fund, and consumers will likely see lower per-transaction fees but may face fewer small or informal providers as those operators weigh the added costs and regulatory burden. Important details needed to assess the full effect—exact fee amounts, the criteria for the bonding alternative, and some enforcement or procedural provisions—are not included in the provided text.