Mortgage Industry Update

Licensing Updates

License Types	As of January 2018	As of January 2017
Mortgage Broker Main Office	271	270
Mortgage Broker Branch Office	172	167
Consumer Loan Main Office	648	583
Consumer Loan Branch Office	2,471	2,213
MLOs - Active	15,164	14,425
MLOs - Inactive	1,580	829

Consumer Loan Annual Assessment - March 1 Deadline

It’s time for Consumer Loan licensees to file the 2017 Annual Assessment Report. The deadline to file is March 1. The Consumer Loan Annual Assessment Report is filed through the Department’s online filing system. To get started, visit the Consumer Loan Annual Assessment page for important information.

Important reminders about the assessment filing:

• March 1 all assessment reports and payments must be filed and paid, late fees are automatically assessed through the system for filings submitted after March 1
• All licensees must file, even if you conducted no Washington business in 2017, this includes companies issued a license at the end of the year
• Don’t forget to adjust your surety bond amount based on the 2017 loan volume you reported in your assessment filing. See WAC 208-620-320 for bond calculations.

Other reporting deadlines are approaching for both Mortgage Broker and Consumer Loan licensees:

• February 14 – Q4 MCR filing deadline
  • Applies to all Mortgage Broker and Consumer Loan Licensees
• April 1 – Financial Conditions filing deadline
  • Applies to licensees filing the Standard MCR and who have a fiscal year end of 12/31

Electronic Surety Bond Conversion

A big THANK YOU to all the Mortgage Broker licensees who completed the process of converting their paper surety bond to the new Electronic Surety Bond (ESB) on NMLS. Many people, from licensees to the surety producers, put in a lot of time and effort to complete the process before the end of 2017.

Next up? Consumer Loan Licenses have a deadline of March 1 to complete the conversion process. To date, more than 450 licensees have converted their bonds. Thank you for taking action early. Licensees who haven’t yet converted the bond should expect to receive direct communication regarding the steps to take.

ESB for Licensees

Tips for MLO Licensees and Applicants

A few reminders for MLO licensees or applicants and the companies which assist MLOs in making filings:

• Review the Document Upload Descriptions & Examples before you complete a document upload. We are seeing a high number of misplaced documents like high school information in the Legal Name/Status Documentation instead of Verification of Experience, surety bonds in the Legal Name/Status Documentation when they don’t belong in NMLS, or lien releases in the Credit Report Explanations when they should be in disclosure explanations.
• The disclosure question about liens and judgments asks about any unsatisfied liens or judgments, not only those reported on a credit report. A higher than usual number of MLOs are either not disclosing or removing disclosures for liens and/or judgments which are still unresolved.