Title 40 Trade and Commerce

40-14-102. Purposes; rules of construction.

(a) This act shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies. (b) The underlying purposes and policies of this act are: (i) To simplify, clarify and modernize the law governing retail installment sales, consumer credit, small loans and usury; (ii) To provide rate ceilings to assure an adequate supply of credit to consumers; (iii) To further consumer understanding of the terms of credit transactions and to foster competition among suppliers of consumer credit so that consumers may obtain credit at reasonable cost; (iv) To protect consumer buyers, lessees, and borrowers against unfair practices by some suppliers of consumer credit, having due regard for the interests of legitimate and scrupulous creditors; (v) To permit and encourage the development of fair and economically sound consumer credit practices; (vi) To conform the regulation of consumer credit transactions to the policies of the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act; and (vii) To make uniform the law, including administrative rules, among the various jurisdictions. (c) A reference to a requirement imposed by this act includes reference to a related rule of the administrator adopted pursuant to this act.