The Safety Act requires loan originators to exist licensed. Just what does that mean exactly?

White Houses (One Red)

Who Needs to Be Licensed in the Mortgage Industry?

Anyone who engages in the business of a loan originator will need to be licensed.

Engaging in the business of loan origination means you:

  • Accept residential mortgage loan applications,
  • Offer or negotiate terms of a residential mortgage loan for bounty or proceeds,
  • Hold yourself out to exist or annunciate that yous tin can or will accept a mortgage application or negotiate mortgage terms for compensation, or
  • Are an independent contractor who acts as a loan processor or underwriter for residential real estate.

What does it hateful to "take a residential mortgage loan application"?

A person "takes an application" if yous receive a residential mortgage loan application for the purpose of facilitating a decision whether to extend an offer of residential mortgage loan terms to a borrower or prospective borrower.

What does information technology mean to "offer or negotiate terms of a residential mortgage loan for bounty or gain"?

If you practice any of the post-obit, it ways you're offering or negotiating terms:

  • Testify residential mortgage loan terms to borrowers or potential borrowers for their consideration,
  • Communicate with borrowers and prospective borrowers regarding residential mortgage loan terms with the goal of gaining the borrower's business,
  • Guide borrowers and potential borrowers toward specific lenders or residential mortgage loan terms with someone other than the borrower offer you incentives to exercise so, or
  • Receive any payment every bit a result of a borrower inbound into residential mortgage loan terms.

Who Does Not Need to Be Licensed in the Mortgage Industry?

You are not required to be licensed under the Federal SAFE Act simply for working for a mortgage company, unless you're performing origination activity, which nosotros've described above.

There are many job roles at a mortgage company that, in most states, do not crave a license. This generally includes processors, underwriters, and administration who are non involved in offering or negotiating loans.

Some states, still, have more stringent guidelines regarding who must be licensed, requiring more than chore functions to hold a license. Check your state's requirements to determine whether you lot do or practise not demand to be licensed to work in the mortgage industry.

What Does Information technology Accept to Get a Mortgage License?

Mortgage licensing is overseen past the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, more often than not referred to as the NMLS. The NMLS issues licenses to prospective MLOs who meet the requirements.

MLOs are required to practice the following before obtaining a license:

  • Prove financial responsibility, character, and general fettle. It is expected that MLOs will demonstrate financial health at a level that the community can have confidence in them and that they volition operate in an honest and fair manner, according to the standards of their respective states.
  • Consummate, at a minimum, twenty hours of pre-licensing education. These courses must be canonical by the NMLS. Many states too take boosted country-specific pre- and postal service-licensing teaching requirements.
  • Get a score of at least 75 percent correct answers on the NMLS' written test. This is part of 12 U.Due south.C. 5105(d). States likewise require a exam specific to their laws or requite the Uniform State Test (UST).
  • Receive coverage through either a net worth or surety bond. Alternatively, you tin pay into a state fund every bit required past state regulators.
  • Submit fingerprints to the NMLS for an FBI state and national criminal history groundwork bank check.
  • Submit an accurate and thorough personal history and experience document to the NMLS that includes:
    • An independent credit report
    • Any information regarding administrative, civil, or criminal findings in any jurisdiction

Are You Ready? (Running Track)

What Tin Impact Your MLO Licensing Eligibility?

To exist eligible for a loan originator license, there are a number of requirements you lot must meet. If you lot take done whatever of the following, y'all will not be able to get an MLO license:

  • Had an MLO license revoked anywhere in the state. That's right—if one state takes away your license, yous can no longer become a license in whatsoever other state. The only exception to this rule is if the revocation was formally vacated.
  • Been convicted of, pleaded guilty or nolo contendere to a felony during the seven-yr period before the appointment of application for licensing.
    • This is broader if the felony involved fraud, dishonesty, a breach of trust, or money laundering. No timeframe applies in these cases and any of these charges can affect your licensure eligibility.
    • Expunged or pardoned convictions do not necessarily touch your eligibility.
    • Notation that whether a criminal offence is considered a felony is based on the law where the crime was committed.

How Do You Renew Your Mortgage Loan Originator License?

If you lot want to meet all the requirements to renew a loan originator license, you must meet all minimum standards established for initial licensure and complete all required professional person NMLS-canonical continuing education (CE).

Required CE includes a minimum of eight hours of NMLS-canonical CE each year. You may also need to complete additional standing education hours equally required past your individual state.

Yous are only permitted to receive credit for a continuing education course in the twelvemonth you take the course. So y'all may not take a grade one year to encounter requirements in the next twelvemonth. You as well cannot repeat taking a course to run into minimum requirements. The NMLS also uses a "successive yr rule," which ways you tin can't take the same CE course two years in a row.

If yous are an instructor of an NMLS-approved course, you tin can earn credit toward the continuing education requirement. Every ane hr of educational activity is equivalent to two hours' credit toward that requirement.

Note that if your MLO license lapses and is not renewed for five years or more than, your original test results will no longer be valid. This means that y'all'll take to accept and laissez passer all relevant tests again to regain your MLO license.

What Else Should You Know About MLO Licensing?

To obtain an MLO license, you need to have a sponsor that'due south an NMLS-licensed entity. Your sponsor will have access to your profile and bears the responsibility for your actions.

Updating your data with the NMLS is mandatory. If the information on your MU4 grade is no longer accurate, you have 30 days to update the data. You must submit your new information via the NMLS.

Your sponsoring entity is not allowed to change your data unless you provide consent. And so if they revise your MU4 form, yous have to provide an attestation before the info is sent to NMLS.

You shouldn't ignore the disclosure questions on MU4 forms. In fact, many people have had licenses revoked because they provided inaccurate responses to these questions. As we mentioned before, revocation in one land means you won't be allowed to apply for a license in any other land, which ways game over!

Additional Reading:

  • Mortgage Loan Origination Activities: Are You Licensed for That?
  • Mutual NMLS Licensing Bug