(1) When the director determines an application for an original license under the Nebraska Money Transmitters Act appears to include all the items and addresses all of the matters that are required, the application is complete. The director shall promptly notify the applicant in a record of the date on which the application is determined to be complete. The director shall approve, conditionally approve, or deny the application within one hundred twenty days after the completion date. The director may for good cause extend such one-hundred-twenty-day period.

(2) A determination by the director that an application is complete and is accepted for processing means only that the application, on its face, appears to include all of the items, including the criminal history background check response from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and address all of the matters that are required, and is not an assessment of the substance of the application or of the sufficiency of the information provided.

(3) When an application is filed and considered complete under this section, the director shall investigate the applicant's financial condition, financial responsibility, financial and business experience, character, and general fitness. The director may conduct an investigation of the applicant, the reasonable cost of which the applicant must pay. The director shall issue a license to an applicant under this section if the director finds that all of the following conditions have been fulfilled:

(a) The applicant has complied with sections 8-2711 and 8-2712; and

(b) The financial condition, financial responsibility, financial and business experience, competence, character, and general fitness of the applicant and the competence, experience, character, and general fitness of the key individuals and persons in control of the applicant indicate that it is in the interest of the public to permit the applicant to engage in money transmission.

(4) The director shall issue a formal written notice of the denial of a license application within thirty days after the decision to deny such application. The director shall set forth in the notice of denial the specific reasons for the denial of the application. An applicant whose application is denied by the director under this section may appeal within thirty days after receipt of the written notice of the denial. The appeal shall be in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act.

(5) If an applicant for a license under the Nebraska Money Transmitters Act does not complete the license application and fails to respond to a notice or notices from the department to correct a deficiency or deficiencies for a period of one hundred twenty days or more after the date the department sends the initial notice to correct the deficiency or deficiencies, the department may deem the application as abandoned and may issue a notice of abandonment of the application to the applicant in lieu of proceedings to deny the application.

(6) The initial license term shall begin on the day the application is approved. The license shall expire on December 31 of the year in which the license term began, unless the initial license date is on or after November 1 and on or before December 31, in which instance the initial license term shall run through December 31 of the following year.