The General Assembly finds and declares that community currency exchanges provide important and vital services to Illinois citizens. The General Assembly also finds that in providing such services, community currency exchanges transact extensive business involving check cashing and the writing of money orders in communities in which banking services are generally unavailable. It is therefore declared to be the policy of this State that customers who receive these services must be protected from insolvencies of currency exchanges and interruptions of services. To carry out this policy and to insure that customers of community currency exchanges are protected in the event it is determined that a community currency exchange in receivership should be liquidated in accordance with Section 15.1a of this Act, the Secretary shall make a distribution of moneys collected by the receiver in the following order of priority: First, allowed claims for the actual necessary expenses of the receivership of the community currency exchange being liquidated, including (a) reasonable receiver fees and receiver’s attorney’s fees approved by the Secretary, (b) all expenses of any preliminary or other examinations into the condition of the community currency exchange or receivership, (c) all expenses incurred by the Secretary which are incident to possession and control of any property or records of the community currency exchange, and (d) reasonable expenses incurred by the Secretary as the result of business agreements or contractual arrangements necessary to insure that the services of the community currency exchanges are delivered to the community without interruption. Said business agreements or contractual arrangements may include, but are not limited to, agreements made by the Secretary, or by the Receiver with the approval of the Secretary, with banks, money order companies, bonding companies and other types of financial institutions; Second, allowed claims by a purchaser of money orders issued on demand of the community currency exchange being liquidated; Third, allowed claims arising by virtue of and to the extent of the amount a utility customer deposits with the community currency exchange being liquidated which are not remitted to the utility company; Fourth, allowed claims arising by virtue of and to the extent of the amount paid by a purchaser of Illinois license plates, vehicle stickers sold for State and municipal governments in Illinois, and temporary Illinois registration permits purchased at the currency exchange being liquidated; Fifth, allowed unsecured claims for wages or salaries, excluding vacation, severance and sick leave pay earned by employee earned within 90 days prior to the appointment of a Receiver; Sixth, secured claims; Seventh, allowed unsecured claims of any tax, and interest and penalty on the tax; Eighth, allowed unsecured claims other than a kind specified in paragraph one, two and three of this Section, filed with the Secretary within the time the Secretary fixes for filing claims; Ninth, allowed unsecured claims, other than a kind specified in paragraphs one, two and three of this Section filed with the Secretary after the time fixed for filing claims by the Secretary; Tenth, allowed creditor claims asserted by an owner, member, or stockholder of the community currency exchange in liquidation; Eleventh, after one year from the final dissolution of the currency exchange, all assets not used to satisfy allowed claims shall be distributed pro rata to the owner, owners, members, or stockholders of the currency exchange.
     The Secretary shall pay all claims of equal priority according to the schedule set out above, and shall not pay claims of lower priority until all higher priority claims are satisfied. If insufficient assets are available to meet all claims of equal priority, those assets shall be distributed pro rata among those claims. All unclaimed assets of a currency exchange shall be deposited with the Secretary to be paid out by him when proper claims therefor are presented to the Secretary. If there are funds remaining after the conclusion of a receivership of an abandoned currency exchange, the remaining funds shall be considered unclaimed property and remitted to the State Treasurer under the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.