(1) Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, no person shall engage in business as an industrial loan and thrift company or industrial bank or industrial investment company without obtaining from the commissioner a certificate of registration as herein provided.
(2) A separate certificate of registration shall be required for each office or other place from which the business is conducted. However, loans secured by real property are not required to be closed at an office where the registrant making the loan is registered; but the loans may be closed at the office of any attorney at law licensed to practice in Tennessee or at the office of a title insurance company or title insurance agency licensed to do business in Tennessee; provided, that the closing location is within this state and within one hundred (100) miles of any registered office of the registrant making the loan.