Compliance Blog

Posted by Anthony Demangone

What are the Federal registration requirements under the S.A.F.E. Act?

The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (the S.A.F.E. Act) requires the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Farm Credit Administration (collectively, the Agencies) to jointly develop and maintain a Federal registration system for individual employees of Agency-regulated institutions who engage in the business of residential mortgage loan origination. The statute requires these individual mortgage loan originators to be registered with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (Registry), a database established previously by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators to support the licensing of mortgage loan originators by the States. [http://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/fedreg/Pages/default.aspx… 

What are the Federal registration requirements under the Agencies' draft final rule?

The Agencies have prepared a draft final rule, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Board recently approved, for the Federal registration required by the S.A.F.E. Act. Under the draft final rule and the Federal Register notice: 

Individual residential mortgage loan originators employed by Agency-regulated institutions must:

• Register with the Registry and maintain their registration.
• Obtain a unique identifier through the Registry that will remain with that originator, regardless of employment changes.  
• Mortgage loan originators and their employing institutions must provide their unique identifiers to consumers. 

Agency-regulated institutions must:

• Require their employees who are mortgage loan originators to comply with these requirements.  
• Adopt and follow written policies and procedures to assure compliance with the registration requirements.

When will the draft final rule be finalized?

The draft final rule is currently under review by the OMB pursuant to Executive Order 12866. [http://www.reginfo.gov] The Agencies expect to publish the rule following the completion of that review process and final agency approval, as necessary. 

When do I have to complete my Federal registration?

At this time there is no action required in the Registry of any mortgage loan originator who is an employee of an Agency-regulated institution and whose origination activities are solely within the scope of that employment. 

The draft final rule provides for a 180-day period within which to complete initial registrations, beginning on the date that the Agencies provide in a public notice that the Registry is accepting registrations from Agency-regulated institution employees. The Agencies and CSBS are working together to ensure the Registry becomes operational as soon as possible. The Agencies will notify the institutions they supervise when the Registry becomes operational. That information will also be posted on this webpage.