Request By:
Mr. M. Brooks Senn
Senn & Miller
607 Portland Building
Second & Broadway
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Penny R. Warren, Assistant Attorney General
You wrote concerning the appearance of a possible conflict in OAG 78-221 and OAG 80-64 and stated that the latter opinion has been misinterpreted as encompassing a wide variety of loans, regardless of the amount or the statutory authority under which they were made. You also enclosed correspondence dated within two weeks of OAG 80-64 reflecting that it was not the author's intention that the opinion be so broadly construed.
We agree that OAG 80-64 was concerned only with loans in the amount of $15,000 or less made pursuant to the authority of KRS 287.215. The opinion was not intended to limit or modify OAG 78-221 or to restrict a bank's authority to make loans pursuant to any other statute.
As stated in OAG 78-221 and OAG 80-64, the purpose of KRS 287.215 was to empower and encourage banks to make loans at rates in excess of the then stricter usury statutes. To construe this statute as a restriction upon a bank's ability to loan under KRS 360.010, when the circumstances are such that the provisions therein are favorable to the bank, would be in derogation of legislative intent. Statutes are to be construed so as to give effect to the intent of the legislature.