With all eyes on Washington, DC, and the press abuzz with each movement and action of the newly sworn-in President Trump, Maryland quietly published in the January 20, 2017 issue of the Maryland Register a highly-anticipated request for comment and proposed revisions to its regulations governing a wide range of mortgage finance licensing and practice requirements. Specifically, Maryland seeks to amend the Mortgage Lender, Mortgage Loan Originator (“MLO”), Recordation of Security Instruments for Residential Real Property and Foreclosure Procedures for Residential Real Property regulations. Despite the quiet publication of the proposed regulations, this proposal is actually many months in the making. Over the past two years, Maryland has been communicating both internally and with industry stakeholders to bring much-needed revisions to the regulations. As such, the published proposal addresses the following changes:
- Addition and clarification of certain definitions, including “initial application,” “mortgage servicing right,” and “transfer of servicing rights”
- Addition of requirements related to mortgage servicing transfers, which directly affects certain persons who hold mortgage servicing rights
- Addition of provisions related to electronic records, provision of records to the Commissioner, and loss of records
- Establishment of data protection standards
- Allowances to substitute compliance with certain federal laws and regulations for compliance with certain Maryland laws and regulations
- Specification of the process for obtaining approval of a trade name
- Alignment of the record-keeping requirements with the statutorily-mandated examination cycle
- Clarification of the Commissioner’s requirements related to the delivery and receipt of mortgage disclosures
- Clarification of the Commissioner’s requirements related to the supervision of MLOs
- Clarification of the requirement to make certain reports to the Commissioner
- Clarification of the MLO license application approval and denial process
- Clarification of the MLO prelicening and continuing education requirements
- Permission for MLOs to conduct mortgage lending business at certain limited locations that are different from the location appearing on the employer’s license(s)
- Permission to conduct loan origination activities under an expired license in a certain limited situation
- Permission for secured party to include the NMLS unique identifier on a security instrument and a notice of intent to foreclose
The Commissioner has not scheduled a public hearing on the proposed regulations, but will accept comments through March 6, 2017. Interested persons may send comments to Jedd Bellman, Assistant Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation, 500 N Calvert Street, Room 402, Baltimore, Maryland 21202; or call 410-230-6390, email jedd.bellman@maryland.gov, or fax 410-333-0475.
We will be reviewing these proposals in greater detail, so should you need assistance submitting comments or have any questions about the Maryland proposals or licensing questions generally, please let us know, as we can help.