7-9-12.1. Treatment of merchant funds.

All merchant funds shall constitute a trust fund until paid to the individual merchant. A merchant acquirer limited purpose bank shall have a fiduciary duty to preserve and account for merchant funds, and merchant acquirer limited purpose banks shall be liable for merchant funds.#

All merchant funds shall be deposited immediately and shall remain in an account at a financial institution that is federally insured and authorized to do business in this state until paid over to the individual merchant; provided, however, that nothing in this Code section shall preclude a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank from making appropriate deductions for chargebacks, fees, reserves, and other costs related to providing authorized merchant acquiring services owed by the individual merchant prior to remitting the net amount to the individual merchant. At the time of deposit into the account, the funds of the individual merchant in the account shall be deemed to be the property of the individual merchant. The merchant acquirer limited purpose bank shall maintain or cause to be maintained account records that identify individual merchants and the total amount held for each individual merchant. Such records shall be maintained in good faith and in the ordinary course of business and in a manner that can be readily ascertained.#

Notwithstanding subsection (b) of this Code section, the department may, by regulation or otherwise, authorize the merchant acquirer limited purpose bank to receive and hold merchant funds in accordance with alternative safeguarding arrangements designed to protect merchant funds.#