The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, along with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Farm Credit Administration and the National Credit Union Administration, (collectively, “the Agencies”) issued a joint proposed rule on June 9, 2009, to implement the SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (“the SAFE Act”).
The SAFE Act generally prohibits employees of an agency-regulated institution from originating residential mortgage loans without first registering with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry, (“NMLSR”). The proposed rule amends 12 CFR 34 to implement the mortgage loan originator registration requirements of the SAFE Act with respect to national banks, federal branches and agencies of foreign banks, and their operating subsidiaries (national banks). The Agencies have proposed identical rules for their regulated entities as part of this joint rulemaking.
The proposal requires mortgage loan originators (and national banks) to obtain and provide a unique identifier through the NMLSR that would remain with that originator, regardless of changes in employment. The proposal provides an exception to these requirements for originators and national banks who originate a de minimis number of residential mortgage loans.
Under the proposal, a national bank must require its employees who are mortgage loan originators to comply with these requirements and specifically prohibits the bank from permitting its employees to act as mortgage loan originators unless registered with the NMLSR.
The proposed rule provides for a delay in implementation of the registration requirements of the final rule until 180 days after the NMLSR becomes operational and available for initial federal registrations. Therefore, there is no registration requirement in effect for national banks at this time. The Agencies intend to make an advance public announcement of the date when the registry will begin accepting registrations from employees of agency-regulated institutions. |