---
type: "Bill"
title: "Financial institutions: finance lenders: exemptions."
description: "Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders, as defined, by the Commissioner of Corporations and prohibits a person from engaging in the business of a finance lender or broker without a license. Until January 1, 2010, existing law exempts from its requirements a program-related investment by a private foundation, tax‑exempt organization, and a loan, guaranty, or investment made by a public charity, tax‑exempt organization meeting specified requirements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010"
identifier: "AB 401"
citation: "California AB 401 (20092010)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Financial institutions: finance lenders: exemptions."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ruskin"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2009-02-23"
last_action: "2009-08-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3235bdbc-3b77-4f3b-8095-c028d483567f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB401"
source_hash: "f4fca09fa6ed16fa81a89678a1f43859156f9085fa980d640392b34c665ac387"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 401 (20092010) — Financial institutions: finance lenders: exemptions.

Existing law, the California Finance Lenders Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of finance lenders, as defined, by the Commissioner of Corporations and prohibits a person from engaging in the business of a finance lender or broker without a license. Until January 1, 2010, existing law exempts from its requirements a program-related investment by a private foundation, tax‑exempt organization, and a loan, guaranty, or investment made by a public charity, tax‑exempt organization meeting specified requirements.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/23/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB401&version=20090AB40199INT)
2. **08/06/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB401&version=20090AB40197CHP)
3. **AB401** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB401)
4. **06/26/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB401&version=20090AB40198ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar 2nd AB401 Ruskin — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- AB 401 RUSKIN Consent Calendar Second Day Regular Session — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ruskin — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2009-02-23** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-02-24** From printer. May be heard in committee March 26.
- **2009-03-09** Referred to Com. on B. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-14** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (April 13). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-04-15** Read second time. To Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-04-20** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 986.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-04-20** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-04-30** Referred to Com. on B., F. & I. `referral-committee`
- **2009-06-18** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (June 17). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-06-22** Read second time. To Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-06-24** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 1428.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-06-24** In Assembly. To enrollment.
- **2009-06-30** Enrolled and to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2009-07-01** Withdrawn from Governor.
- **2009-07-01** Ordered returned to enrollment.
- **2009-07-30** Enrolled and to the Governor at 2:30 p.m.
- **2009-08-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-08-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 103, Statutes of 2009.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3235bdbc-3b77-4f3b-8095-c028d483567f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).