National Registry of Home Lenders

Last year, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 was signed into law as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. This law outlines procedures, requirements, education, testing, and standards for mortgage loan originators. 

Part of the law includes mandatory registration and state licensing of loan originators through the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System in order to give consumers easy access to a loan originator’s employment history, and any disciplinary or enforcement actions taken against him or her.  This is great news for consumers, since a national registry will help stop fraud, giving regulators the ability to more efficiently track bad actors.

The registry was begun in January 2008 with a handful of states, and to date, 26 states are actively participating, tracking 66,469 individual originators and 11,459 mortgage brokers and lender companies.  An additional 20 states will register by the end of this year.  Three states — California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts — have not yet passed bills but have legislation pending, and Minnesota is expected to address the issue in 2010.

The law defines a mortgage loan originator as someone who takes an application and negotiates the terms. What hasn’t been decided yet is whether that definition should include servicers and loan modification officers.