1. 1. If an application for an original license under sections 361.900 to 361.1035 appears to include all the items and addresses and all of the matters that are required, the application is complete and the director shall promptly notify the applicant in a record of the date on which the application is determined to be complete, and:

   1. (1) The director shall approve or deny the application within one hundred twenty days after the completion date; or

   2. (2) If the application is not approved or denied within one hundred twenty days after the completion date:

      1. (a) The application is approved; and

      2. (b) The license takes effect as of the first business day after expiration of the one-hundred-twenty-day period.

         ­­­The director may for good cause extend the application period.

2. 2. A determination by the director that an application is complete and is accepted for processing means only that the application, on its face, appears to include all of the items, including the criminal background check response from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and address all of the matters that are required, and is not an assessment of the substance of the application or of the sufficiency of the information provided.

3. 3. If an application is filed and considered complete under this section, the director shall investigate the applicant's financial condition and responsibility, financial and business experience, character, and general fitness. The director may conduct an onsite investigation of the applicant, the reasonable cost of which the applicant shall pay. The director shall issue a license to an applicant under this section if the director finds that all of the following conditions have been fulfilled:

   1. (1) The applicant has complied with the provisions of sections 361.936 and 361.939; and
   2. (2) The financial condition and responsibility, financial and business experience, competence, character, and general fitness of the applicant; and the competence, experience, character, and general fitness of the key individuals and persons in control of the applicant indicate that it is in the interest of the public to permit the applicant to engage in money transmission.

4. 4. If an applicant avails itself or is otherwise subject to a multistate licensing process:

   1. (1) The director shall be authorized to accept the investigation results of a lead investigative state for the purpose of subsection 3 of this section if the lead investigative state has sufficient staffing, expertise, and minimum standards; or
   2. (2) If this state is a lead investigative state, the director shall be authorized to investigate the applicant under subsection 3 of this section and the time frames established by agreement through the multistate licensing process, provided however, that in no case shall such time frame be noncompliant with the application period in subdivision (1) of subsection 1 of this section.
5. 5. The director shall issue a formal written notice of the denial of a license application within thirty days of the decision to deny the application. The director shall set forth in the notice of denial the specific reasons for the denial of the application. An applicant whose application is denied by the director under this subsection may appeal within thirty days after receipt of the written notice of the denial under chapter 536.
6. 6. The initial license term shall begin on the day the application is approved. The license shall expire on December thirty-first of the year in which the license term began unless the initial license date is between November first and December thirty-first, in which instance the initial license term shall run through December thirty-first of the following year.

(L. 2024 S.B. 1359)