§2387.  Declaration of purpose

The purposes of this Chapter are to:

(1)  Promote economic development by encouraging the formation of business and industrial development companies, a new type of private institution, to help grow the financial services industry in Louisiana, create high-paying job opportunities in this sector and meet the financing assistance and management assistance needs of business firms in this state and elsewhere.

(2)  Provide for a system of licensing, regulation, and enforcement that will enable business and industrial development companies to satisfy eligibility requirements to participate, if they so choose, in the program of the Small Business Administration pursuant to Part 7(a) of the Small Business Act, Public Law 85-536, 15 U.S.C. 636(a), and other programs for which they may be eligible.

(3)  Provide for a system of licensing, regulation, and enforcement designed to prevent fraud, conflict of interest, and mismanagement, and to promote competent management, accurate recordkeeping, and appropriate communication with shareholders or members, in order to provide the following:

(a)  Comfort to prospective shareholders or members so as to facilitate equity investments in business and industrial development companies.

(b)  Comfort to prospective debt sources so as to facilitate the borrowing of money by business and industrial development companies.

(4)  Safeguard the general reputation of business and industrial development companies as a type of nondepository financial institution in order to increase the confidence of prospective equity investors in and prospective debt sources for those institutions.

Acts 1991, No. 506, §1; Acts 2004, No. 806, §1.