Which place’s debt rules apply—and who can help?

S_OR PASS-03 — Oregon consumer funds and trust-account component

Fresh research-access date: October 25, 2026, Pacific time. Mode/model actually used: Regular Chat, GPT-5.6 Sol Pro, the highest verified authorized quality-first model available in this session. No Deep Research, Work, Chrome control, new Chat, API, purchase, contact, private borrower data, application, account change, site action, or publication action was used.

Pass boundary: This pass addresses only Oregon consumer-money custody, trust-account architecture, accounting and statements, cancellation/closure/insolvency handling, and the narrow money-transmission gateway. PASS-01 and PASS-02 remain preserved. Fee currentness, CPI adjustment, savings-fee discharge timing, credit-only conflicts, alternative-repayment classification, provider-specific authorization, federal applicability, local/tribal law, and bond claims remain held exactly as before.

Currentness limitation

The complete current official OAR Division 910 was freshly read. Selected current DFR guidance and official historical enacted text were also read. However, the ordinary official current ORS Chapter 697, 706, and 717 HTML routes returned HTTP 403, and the attempted official PDF routes did not yield usable text. Current statutory wording was therefore checked through current-readable secondary section reproductions, compared with the official 2009 enrolled enactment where applicable, and corroborated by current official rules and agency materials. That combination is substantial evidence, but it is not a complete official amendment-chain authentication through October 25, 2026.

A. Substantive findings

1. Which providers and funds flows must use an Oregon trust account

1.1 The trigger is actual direct or indirect custody—not the program label

ORS 697.682(1) applies when a debt-management service provider holds consumer funds directly or indirectly. Once that trigger is met, the provider must establish an Oregon trust account at a qualifying insured institution and keep the held consumer funds there. OAR 441-910-0000(5) further defines the trust account as the Oregon-located account into which all funds received or handled on behalf of Oregon consumers by the provider are initially deposited. OregonLaws+1

That produces the following operational classification:

The current definition of a debt-management service provider reaches a person that resides or does business in Oregon and provides covered services for consideration. OAR’s trust-account definition specifically refers to funds handled for Oregon consumers. Thus, assuming the Oregon nexus previously established in PASS-01, an out-of-state headquarters does not eliminate the Oregon trust-account location requirement for Oregon-consumer funds. OregonLaws+1

1.2 The noncustodial branch is narrow

A provider claiming noncustodial treatment must satisfy the actual architecture described in ORS 697.707(4):

• The provider does not hold consumer funds directly or indirectly.
• The consumer establishes and maintains the account in the consumer’s own name.
• The account is at an “insured institution.”
• The consumer designates it specifically for debt-management disbursements.
• The provider withdraws its fee only with the consumer’s specific authorization.
• The provider has no custody, control, separate access, or additional access. OregonLaws+1

Those are cumulative functional conditions. The following facts, standing alone, do not prove a compliant noncustodial arrangement:

• “Dedicated account” in marketing copy.
• Consumer’s name appearing somewhere in the account title.
• Consumer nominally authorizing every transaction.
• An administrator being contractually described as “independent.”
• Funds being held at a bank rather than by the provider itself.
• A provider asserting that it does not technically possess the bank account.

The actual ACH authorization, account agreement, processor agreement, signer rights, portal permissions, payment instructions, ability to freeze or redirect funds, and provider–administrator relationship remain essential unresolved facts.

1.3 Debts, creditors, and beneficiaries

The consumer agreement must identify every covered debt and creditor and show the approximate debt total, installments, and allocation or payment arrangement. The trust-account statute, however, requires accounting by consumer, not expressly by individual debt. A pooled account therefore needs a separate receipts-and-disbursements ledger for each consumer, but the reviewed provisions do not expressly require a separate bank subaccount or statutory trust ledger for every creditor or every enrolled debt. OregonLaws+1

The statutes repeatedly call the money “consumer funds” and protect the trust account against execution or attachment for claims against the provider. They do not, in the provisions reviewed here, decide:

• when a creditor becomes a trust beneficiary;
• whether a creditor has a property interest before disbursement;
• whether the provider is the bank account’s legal owner or only trustee;
• the effect of a bank’s setoff rights;
• bankruptcy-estate treatment;
• priority among consumers, creditors, the provider, and an account administrator; or
• beneficial ownership of accrued interest.

Those questions remain open.

1.4 Registration-exempt actors

ORS 697.612(3) is phrased as an exception from subsection (1)’s registration requirement. By contrast, ORS 697.682 imposes the trust duty on a “debt management service provider” without expressly limiting the duty to registered providers. ORS 697.652 also makes purported consumer waivers of ORS 697.602 through 697.842 void and places the burden of proving an exemption from a provision on the exemption claimant. OregonLaws+1

The supported bounded conclusion is:

An attorney, nonprofit, bank, escrow agent, or other actor should not infer that exemption from registration automatically authorizes unrestricted custody or eliminates every consumer-funds rule.

This pass does not resolve the substantive trust obligations of every enumerated exempt entity. Some actors may fall outside the provider definition on their actual activity; others may be governed by a separate custody statute; still others may have a specific activity-limited exemption. That remains entity-specific.

2. Account establishment, institution, insurance, ownership, segregation, deposits, disbursements, and withdrawals

2.1 Establishment and Oregon location

A custodial provider must establish the trust account in Oregon with an “insured institution” as defined in ORS 706.008. Current OAR 441-910-0000(5) narrows the operational location further: the institution must take deposits at its Oregon headquarters or at a branch in Oregon. The registration application must identify the name and location of the insured institution established to hold consumer funds. OregonLaws+1

No reviewed provision prescribed:

• exact words that must appear in the account title;
• a required “for benefit of” or “trust” naming convention;
• required authorized signers;
• a bank acknowledgment of the statutory trust;
• a bank-setoff waiver;
• a specific depository agreement form; or
• advance agency approval of the individual account agreement.

Those points remain contract and bank-document gaps.

2.2 “Insured institution” means the FDIC-based category

ORS 706.008 separately defines:

• “Financial institution” to include insured institutions and several types of credit unions; but
• “Insured institution” as a company whose deposits are insured under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. OregonLaws

ORS 697.682 and 697.707 use the narrower term insured institution, not the broader term “financial institution.” The literal cross-reference therefore does not establish that an NCUA-insured credit union qualifies merely because it is federally insured. A credit-union architecture would need a separate statutory or authoritative basis; none was located in this pass.

2.3 Separate versus pooled account

A provider may use:

1. A separate trust account for each consumer; or
2. One pooled trust account containing multiple consumers’ funds.

For a pooled account, the provider must keep a distinct record of receipts and disbursements for every consumer whose funds are held. OregonLaws+1

A pooled trust account is not permission to:

• pool trust money with the provider’s operating money;
• offset one consumer’s deficit against another consumer’s balance;
• treat the pooled balance as unrestricted working capital; or
• substitute an aggregate bank balance for per-consumer accounting.

2.4 Segregation and commingling

Two separate constraints apply:

• ORS 697.662(9) prohibits commingling the consumer’s wages, salary, income, credits, funds, or property with the provider’s funds or property.
• OAR 441-910-0080 prohibits using the same insured-institution account jointly as both a trust account and an operating account. OregonLaws+1

The reviewed provisions did not supply an express exception for:

• minimum-balance deposits supplied by the provider;
• provider money temporarily advanced to cover a shortage;
• chargeback reserves;
• processor reserves;
• overdraft protection;
• bank-fee buffers; or
• settlement of a negative consumer subledger.

Any such structure requires separate authority and exact accounting treatment rather than an assumption that a small amount of provider money may be mixed into the trust.

2.5 What must enter the trust account

ORS 697.682(3) requires the provider to deposit into the trust account all wages, salary, income, credits, or proceeds from property that the provider receives from the consumer or the consumer’s property. OAR’s trust-account definition says that all funds received or handled on behalf of Oregon consumers are initially deposited into that account. OregonLaws+1

The combined effect is that, for a custodial model:

• consumer money cannot first be routed to the provider’s operating account;
• the provider cannot silently net out its fee before the consumer funds reach the trust account;
• a processor-controlled first destination may create an indirect-custody issue; and
• all consumer funds handled as part of the custodial flow must be traceable into the trust architecture.

Neither the statute nor current Division 910 provides a specific number of hours or days for deposit. “Initially deposited” identifies the required first account destination; it should not be converted into an invented same-day, next-business-day, or other numeric deadline.

2.6 What may leave the trust account

All payments the provider makes on a consumer’s behalf—including payments of provider fees or charges—must be disbursed from the trust account. OregonLaws+1

This establishes the permitted direction of a custodial flow, but it does not independently resolve:

• when a provider fee is earned;
• whether the fee is currently collectible under the held Oregon fee provisions;
• the unresolved Appendix A creditor-discharge issue;
• federal advance-fee timing;
• contract allocation;
• refunds of previously collected fees; or
• whether a particular administrator’s fee is lawful.

Those earlier holds remain untouched.

OAR 441-910-0200 also requires retention of the consumer’s written authorization for provider fee withdrawals. OAR 441-910-0096 states that all transaction-connected charges—including a charge labeled an “escrow” fee—are service fees. An account, custody, escrow, platform, or administration label therefore does not create a new fee category. Oregon Secretary of State+1

2.7 Noncustodial withdrawals

For the noncustodial consumer-owned account, Oregon’s reviewed state text permits provider fee withdrawal only with the consumer’s specific authorization and simultaneously requires the provider to lack custody, control, separate access, or additional access. OregonLaws

This pass does not establish:

• a general Oregon right to withdraw money from that account on demand;
• a required bank-account closure procedure;
• a state seven-business-day return rule;
• a penalty-free withdrawal rule; or
• that a standing blanket authorization satisfies “specific authorization.”

The previously reviewed federal TSR dedicated-account rules remain a separate conditional overlay and are not restated or imported as Oregon state law here.

2.8 Interest and bank-maintenance fees

For separate and pooled trust accounts, the agreement and the consumer’s financial statement must disclose interest attributable to that consumer to the extent interest exceeds the institution’s trust-account maintenance fees. The current rule also requires the accounting ledger to record interest in excess of bank-maintenance fees. OregonLaws+1

The reviewed clauses do not say:

• whether excess interest must be paid to the consumer;
• whether the provider may retain it;
• whether it may be applied to debts;
• how pooled interest is allocated;
• which allocation convention must be used;
• whether maintenance fees may be apportioned among consumers; or
• whether a negative net-interest amount may reduce consumer principal.

Disclosure and ledger recording are established; ultimate ownership and disposition remain unresolved.

2.9 Maximum balance and insurance qualification

A provider may not deposit more than $250,000 on behalf of a single consumer in a trust account. OregonLaws

That statutory cap must not be treated as a finding that:

• the consumer necessarily has $250,000 of FDIC pass-through coverage;
• every pooled-account record satisfies federal pass-through insurance rules;
• accrued interest is inside or outside the cap;
• multiple accounts at the same institution provide separate coverage; or
• the statute adjusts automatically with changes to federal insurance limits.

Federal deposit-insurance treatment and actual account documentation were not reviewed.

2.10 Waivers, exceptions, and agency approval

The complete current Division 910 display contained no trust-specific waiver clause and no trust-account provision using “approve” or “waive.” The account-change rule requires notice, not advance approval. Consumer waivers of the Chapter 697 provisions are void, and an exemption claimant bears the burden of proving the exemption. Oregon Secretary of State+2

The relevant official is the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, not a separately identified commissioner.

Money-transmission law has separate waiver authorities:

• ORS 717.210(2) allows the Director by rule or order to modify or waive Chapter 717 application where another law or Oregon agency provides adequate regulation.
• OAR 441-745-0010 allows waiver or modification of a particular rule, provided it is not contrary to Chapter 717. OregonLaws+1

Neither is a waiver of ORS 697.682. No provider-specific Chapter 717 waiver or order was established.

3. Ledgers, reconciliation, records, consumer access, bank information, and regulator examination

3.1 Required consumer and trust records

The current statutory and rule requirements establish the following minimum record set:

ORS 697.672 independently requires recording all creditor disbursements and authorizes examination at any reasonable time. OAR 441-910-0200 supplies the detailed ledger and document categories. OregonLaws+1

The statutory ledger is per consumer, not expressly per debt. The agreement and creditor correspondence may supply debt-level detail, but this pass did not locate an express Division 910 rule requiring a separate subledger for each enrolled creditor.

3.2 No explicit reconciliation cadence located

The complete current Division 910 display was checked for “reconcile,” “insolvency,” “closing,” and “receivership.” No matching rule text was located. Oregon Secretary of State+3

Accordingly, this pass did not establish an express Oregon Division 910 requirement for:

• daily or monthly bank reconciliation;
• three-way reconciliation among the bank statement, pooled control ledger, and consumer subledgers;
• a fixed reconciliation completion date;
• officer certification of reconciliations;
• independent reconciliation review;
• stale-check procedures;
• negative-balance reports; or
• a prescribed reconciliation form.

The obligation to maintain accurate consumer, receipt, and disbursement ledgers—and the Director’s examination authority—remains clear. Absence of an express cadence in the checked display is not permission to operate an unreconciled account, nor proof that no related requirement exists in another applicable body of law, bank contract, examination manual, order, or later filing.

3.3 Consumer statements and account access

Three overlapping access rights apply:

1. ORS 697.682(4): without charge, the provider must give a statement in accordance with the agreement or at the consumer’s request for the consumer-specified period, showing funds or property received and trust-account disbursements.
2. ORS 697.652(1)(f): the agreement must allow office examination of the consumer’s account or delivery of a complete account statement within:two business days electronically; orseven business days by mail.
3. ORS 697.652(1)(i): if the provider holds funds directly or indirectly, it must deliver a financial statement each calendar quarter. OregonLaws+2

These provisions should not be collapsed into one another. A quarterly statement does not erase the consumer-request statement right, and the two-/seven-business-day agreement term is distinct from the no-charge statement requirement.

3.4 Regulator notice and examination

The registration application must identify the insured institution and its location. At least ten days before a change in ownership, address, bonding company, or information relating to the trust or operating account, the provider must notify the Director in writing through NMLS. Oregon Secretary of State

The ten-day rule is a regulator notice requirement. It does not establish:

• that the Director affirmatively approved the new account;
• when the bank account change becomes contractually effective;
• a consumer-notice period;
• a trust-account closure procedure; or
• how funds must be transferred during a bank conversion.

The Director may examine the provider and its accounts, conduct an out-of-state investigation, require sworn statements, subpoena records, and obtain free access to offices, books, accounts, records, files, safes, and vaults. OregonLaws

3.5 Processor and bank authority

No provider, bank, ACH processor, or administrator contract was supplied. Therefore, this pass cannot determine:

• who is the account holder of record;
• who can originate ACH debits or credits;
• who can change creditor instructions;
• who can freeze the account;
• who can reverse transactions;
• whether the provider can remove the administrator;
• whether the bank may set off fees or debts;
• whether the administrator is the provider’s agent;
• whether the account is omnibus, custodial, FBO, or another legal form; or
• whether the DMSP “holds indirectly.”

A bank’s involvement is not itself dispositive. In the Debt Pay Gateway order, the agency noted that the administrator had a separate agreement with a bank that assisted in performing some services, yet DFR still concluded that the administrator was conducting unlicensed money transmission. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation

4. Cancellation, termination, failed plans, closure, and insolvency

4.1 Consumer cancellation

PASS-02’s accepted correction remains controlling for this project record:

• Early branch: cancellation before midnight of the third business day after agreement entry requires refund of all fees paid before cancellation.
• Later branch: after the separately stated ten-calendar-day written notice condition, the provider must return all consumer funds it then holds directly or indirectly that remain unexpended.
• The statute separately states mailing and electronic/fax effectiveness rules. No invented ten-day effective-date arithmetic is added. OregonLaws+1

Preserved money-state distinction

Case A — $1,000 is starting receipts

• Starting receipts: $1,000
• Already remitted to creditors: $400
• Current held and unexpended balance: $600
• Assumed later-cancellation return base: $600

Case B — $1,000 is already the current held and unexpended balance

• Earlier $400 disbursement is already outside that present balance.
• Assumed later-cancellation return base: $1,000
• The $400 is not subtracted again.

No earned-fee deduction, fee refund, or other adjustment is inserted without actual lawful facts.

4.2 Provider cancellation

The agreement may allow the provider to cancel without the consumer’s written authorization if the consumer has failed to make scheduled periodic payments for more than 60 days. Otherwise, ORS 697.662(10) bars provider cancellation without the consumer’s written authorization. OregonLaws+1

The reviewed provisions do not expressly state, for a provider-initiated cancellation:

• when current trust funds must be returned;
• whether creditor distributions may continue during a wind-down;
• how pending ACH items are treated;
• whether the provider may withhold any fee;
• how uncashed creditor checks are handled; or
• the deadline for closing the consumer subledger.

The general duties to segregate, account for, disclose, and lawfully disburse consumer funds remain. An exact provider-cancellation return rule should not be inferred from the consumer-cancellation clause.

4.3 Failed settlement or failed plan

No reviewed funds provision creates a blanket rule that every fee must be refunded solely because:

• a creditor rejects a proposal;
• one debt fails to settle;
• the plan becomes infeasible;
• a creditor resumes collection;
• the consumer stops funding; or
• the program ends before all debts are resolved.

Likewise, no reviewed provision converts unspent consumer money into provider revenue because a plan failed. Funds still held directly or indirectly remain subject to the trust, segregation, ledger, statement, and accounting rules unless lawfully disbursed or returned. Fee earning and refund consequences remain governed by the unresolved fee, contract, performance, and federal issues preserved from the earlier passes.

4.4 Protection from provider creditors

Funds held in an ORS 697.682 trust account are not subject to execution or attachment on a claim against the provider. OregonLaws

That protection does not, by its terms alone, resolve:

• a federal bankruptcy trustee’s rights;
• whether funds are excluded from the provider’s bankruptcy estate;
• bank setoff;
• competing consumer claims after a shortage;
• tracing after commingling;
• priority against an administrator’s creditors;
• FDIC receivership treatment; or
• abandoned-property treatment.

4.5 Insolvency and regulatory intervention

The Director may deny, suspend, condition, revoke, or refuse renewal when the provider:

• cannot meet obligations as they mature;
• has liabilities exceeding assets;
• cannot continue safely for consumers;
• violates the trust or record provisions; or
• fails to account to interested persons for money or property received. OregonLaws

In an enforcement suit, a court may appoint a receiver or conservator for the defendant or its assets. That is a judicial remedy available upon a proper showing; it is not an automatic receivership that begins whenever a provider becomes insolvent. OregonLaws+1

No general Division 910 rule was located establishing:

• an insolvency distribution waterfall;
• automatic transfer to a successor provider;
• a mandatory account freeze;
• a regulator-controlled liquidation account;
• trust-account closeout reports;
• notice to every consumer upon insolvency;
• a fixed return period;
• treatment of outstanding creditor checks;
• a shortage-allocation formula;
• abandoned-funds delivery; or
• a bankruptcy-specific procedure.

The Debt Pay Gateway and Set Forth orders contain case-specific refund and unclaimed-property directions. Those negotiated enforcement terms are not a generally applicable Chapter 697 insolvency or account-closing rule. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation+1

4.6 Continuing record duties

Cancellation notices must be retained, and the ordinary three-year retention period runs from the last entry in the relevant record—not automatically from contract signing, cancellation notice, or bank-account closure. Oregon Secretary of State

No reviewed rule authorizes destruction merely because:

• the consumer canceled;
• the provider returned the balance;
• the provider closed the trust account;
• a creditor was paid; or
• the provider ceased business.

5. Narrow Oregon money-transmission gateway

5.1 Statutory gateway

Chapter 717 defines “money transmission” to include engaging in the business of receiving money for transmission or transmitting money by electronic or other means. A nonexempt person may not conduct that business without an Oregon money-transmitter license, and DFR has jurisdiction whether or not the person is licensed. OregonLaws+1

A custodial debt-administration flow can implicate that definition where a person:

1. ACH-debits consumer bank accounts;
2. receives the money into an account it controls or administers;
3. holds the money pending instructions;
4. pays creditors;
5. pays the debt-management company; or
6. sends money to other third parties.

5.2 Relevant exemptions—but no express DMSP exemption

ORS 717.210 expressly exempts, among others:

• FDIC-insured deposit-taking companies;
• credit unions and trust companies;
• government entities;
• a licensed escrow agent only for specified escrow, collection-escrow, and trust-deed functions;
• an authorized delegate acting within the scope of a written contract with a licensed money transmitter;
• specified bank, financial, and savings-and-loan holding companies. OregonLaws+1

The exemption list does not expressly identify a registered debt-management service provider.

That does not permit the categorical conclusion that every registered custodial DMSP must obtain a second license. Chapter 697 itself expressly contemplates registered providers holding consumer funds and paying creditors through Oregon trust accounts. No controlling appellate decision, published rule, or general DFR interpretation was located reconciling that Chapter 697 authorization with Chapter 717 for the registered DMSP itself.

The supported result is therefore:

• Independent administrator or processor: material Chapter 717 risk.
• Unregistered debt-settlement company using an administrator: neither role is protected merely by the contract structure.
• Registered custodial DMSP itself: statutory overlap remains unresolved; no automatic exemption or automatic dual-license conclusion is established.
• Licensed money transmitter’s authorized delegate: possible exemption only if the exact Chapter 717 written-contract and scope conditions are satisfied.
• Bank relationship: not enough by itself.
• Licensed escrow label: only the narrow statutory escrow activities qualify.

5.3 Debt Pay Gateway enforcement order

In the September 29, 2022 Debt Pay Gateway consent order, DFR found that the administrator:

• maintained arrangements with debt-modification entities;
• contracted with Oregon consumers;
• collected funds by ACH;
• deposited funds into custodial accounts;
• paid creditors;
• paid fees to the consumer’s designated company;
• acted as third-party escrow; and
• executed consumer payment instructions.

DFR concluded that those activities were money transmission under ORS 717.200(11) and that operating without an Oregon license violated ORS 717.205(1) in 420 instances. The order also notes that a bank assisted with some services. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation+1

The respondent neither admitted nor denied the findings. It is a final consent order and a concrete agency application, not a controlling judicial interpretation.

5.4 Set Forth enforcement order

The December 28, 2023 Set Forth order involved substantially similar conduct:

• ACH collection from consumer institutions;
• deposits into custodial accounts;
• creditor payments;
• payments to the designated debt company;
• third-party payments based on consumer or provider instructions; and
• acceptance of deposit, transfer, and payment instructions from the designated company.

DFR again concluded that operating without a money-transmitter license violated ORS 717.205. The order required the company, except for a bounded fee-free wind-down, to obtain a money-transmitter license or receive an OAR 441-001-0040 opinion that its proposed activity did not require a DFR-regulated license. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation+2

Again, this was a consent order without admission or denial. It does not prove that SettleADebt.com, a registered DMSP, or another administrator has the same status.

5.5 Waiver and opinion routes

Chapter 717 permits the Director by rule or order to grant an exemption where another Oregon law or agency supplies adequate regulation. Current OAR 441-001-0040 also describes an informal opinion procedure concerning exemptions or legal applicability, but such responses are fact-dependent, may be revised, do not bind courts or third parties, and are not themselves rules or orders. OregonLaws+1

No request was made, no contact occurred, and no provider-specific waiver, license, authorized-delegate status, or opinion was established.

B. Minimal funds-flow and obligation map

Model 1 — Custodial provider

Consumer → provider or provider’s indirect holder → Oregon trust account → creditors / lawfully payable provider fee

Required architecture:

• Oregon trust account at qualifying FDIC-insured institution with Oregon deposit-taking presence.
• All Oregon-consumer funds initially deposited there.
• No commingling with operating funds.
• Separate or pooled account permitted.
• Per-consumer receipts/disbursements ledger.
• All consumer-behalf payments leave from the trust.
• Consumer statements and quarterly reporting.
• Current unexpended funds returned under the applicable later consumer-cancellation branch. Oregon Secretary of State+2

Model 2 — Actual noncustodial settlement

Consumer → consumer-owned designated insured-institution account → creditors and specifically authorized provider-fee withdrawal

Required boundary:

• Consumer establishes and maintains the account in the consumer’s own name.
• Provider has no direct or indirect custody.
• Provider has no control, separate access, or additional access.
• Fee withdrawal is specifically authorized.
• Provider does not make scheduled periodic creditor payments. OregonLaws

If a supposedly noncustodial administrator receives the money into its own custodial account and pays creditors or the provider, the facts no longer match this clean map.

Model 3 — Independent custodial administrator

Consumer bank ACH → administrator custodial account → creditors / debt company / third parties

Potential consequences:

• Provider may be holding funds indirectly, depending on control and agency facts.
• Administrator may be conducting Chapter 717 money transmission.
• A bank relationship does not necessarily eliminate that classification.
• DMSP registration does not silently authorize an unaffiliated processor’s money transmission. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation+1

C. Bounded pooled-ledger illustration

This is an accounting illustration, not a statutory reconciliation frequency or a finding about any actual account.

Assumptions

• One pooled trust account.
• No interest, bank fees, pending ACH entries, outstanding checks, reversals, provider fees, chargebacks, or posting delays.
• All creditor disbursements are lawful and completed.

Under those assumptions:

• Expected pooled bank book balance: $1,500 − $500 = $1,000
• Sum of consumer subledgers: $600 + $400 = $1,000

The arithmetic demonstrates why separate consumer records are necessary. It does not create an Oregon daily, monthly, or three-way reconciliation rule that the reviewed text does not state. The actual bank balance and ledger of any provider remain unknown.

D. Source table

E. Claim table

F. Coverage and gap table

G. Researcher self-check

Freshly read or inspected

• Complete current displayed OAR Chapter 441, Division 910.
• Exact current rules governing:trust-account definition;registration disclosure of the institution;account-change notice;separation of trust and operating accounts;escrow-fee treatment;consumer and trust-account records; andthree-year retention.
• Current OAR Division 910 searches for waiver, approval, reconciliation, insolvency, closing, and receivership.
• Selected official HB 2191 enacted pages covering the agreement, cancellation, commingling, records, trust accounts, noncustodial disclosures, attachment protection, examination, insolvency grounds, and receiver authority. Relevant PDF pages were visually inspected.
• Current-readable secondary reproductions of the necessary Chapter 697 and 706 sections.
• Current DFR debt-management instructions.
• Current OAR Division 745 and OAR 441-001-0040.
• Current-readable Chapter 717 definitions, licensing gateway, exemptions, and waiver authority.
• Current DFR money-transmitter guidance.
• Debt Pay Gateway and Set Forth official orders; relevant PDF pages were visually inspected.

Reused without rerunning

• PASS-01’s provider classification, Oregon nexus, and registration-exemption findings.
• PASS-02’s corrected Example 8 money-state distinction.
• PASS-02’s federal TSR/CROA wording and all held federal-applicability issues.
• Existing fee amounts, fee-method claims, savings-fee discharge issue, credit-only conflict, alternative-repayment issue, and currentness holds.

Search-only or inaccessible

• Official current ORS Chapter 697 HTML and PDF.
• Official current ORS Chapter 706 HTML.
• Official current ORS Chapter 717 HTML and PDF.

Those failures were preserved as access limits and were not treated as evidence that no amendment, exception, or rule exists.

Not read or not established

• Complete post-2009 legislative amendment chain for every relevant statutory clause.
• Every Division 910 adoption filing, Oregon Bulletin entry, examination manual, or internal DFR guidance document.
• All Oregon cases concerning trust ownership, indirect custody, bank setoff, insolvency, bankruptcy estate, tracing, or Chapter 697/717 overlap.
• Actual consumer agreements, bank agreements, ACH authorizations, processor agreements, trust ledgers, bank statements, reconciliations, provider policies, or private records.
• Actual SettleADebt legal entity, DMSP registration, money-transmitter license, authorized-delegate status, waiver, or public opinion.
• Full bond, remedies, limitations, unclaimed-property, bankruptcy, local, tribal, secured-debt, or sector-specific analysis.

This is a bounded researcher record of the consumer-funds component. It does not constitute parent-state acceptance, operational approval, a provider authorization determination, or completion of the remaining Oregon dossier.

END S_OR PASS-03