--- title: O.C.G.A. § 7-9-8. Issuance of certificate of incorporation or certificate of organization. collection: code id: 7-9-8 cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 7-9-8 (2025) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9-8 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9-8.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9-8/text source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t7-t8-(v5)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=12761d5c_0#page=104 date: 2025 status: active corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68 license: CC0-1.0 publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9-7.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/7-9-9.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md version: the only printed version in_force: true current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly heading_path: BANKING AND FINANCE / GEORGIA MERCHANT ACQUIRER LIMITED PURPOSE BANK --- # O.C.G.A. § 7-9-8. Issuance of certificate of incorporation or certificate of organization. The Secretary of State shall immediately issue a certificate of incorporation or certificate of organization to a proposed merchant acquirer limited purpose bank upon submission of: (1) Written approval of the articles of incorporation by the department with a copy attached; (2) An affidavit executed by the duly authorized agent or publisher of a newspaper swearing that the articles of incorporation or a summary statement publication as provided for in Code Section 7-9-5 have been published; and (3) All required fees and charges required by law, so long as the name of the proposed merchant acquirer limited purpose bank continues to be reserved or is available. The Secretary of State shall retain on file a copy of the certificate, the articles of incorporation, the department’s approval of the articles of incorporation, and the publisher’s certificate. ## History Code 1981, § 7-9-8, enacted by Ga. L. 2012, p. 43, § 1/HB 898; Ga. L. 2024, p. 354, § 1-41/HB 876, effective July 1, 2024; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 7(8)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025. ## Amendments The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, inserted a comma at the end of paragraph (3) and substituted “the name of” for “name of” at the beginning of the undesignated paragraph.