WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) ended its first full year of operations with 22 participating states and managing over 90,000 company, branch and loan officer licenses. In a year of turmoil in the mortgage industry and questions as to regulatory oversight, Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) introduced a system that provides transparency to the mortgage industry and is quickly proving itself as a key supervisory tool to state regulators. After four years of development, NMLS launched January 2, 2008, with seven states. NMLS now expects to have a total of 34 states on the system by summer 2009. NMLS concluded its first year managing 13,936 mortgage companies, 9,278 branches, and 66,692 mortgage loan originators. "We?re pleased to report NMLS has exceeded our initial expectations and is on solid footing as it enters its second year,? said Gavin Gee, Idaho Director of Finance and chairman of State Regulatory Registry LLC, a CSBS subsidiary which owns and operates NMLS. ?Being able to launch such a comprehensive system and have nearly half the states participating in the first year is a strong indication of state regulators? ability to move quickly with effective solutions,? Gee said. (See chart.) "Thanks to the hard work of state mortgage regulators from around the country, the states now have a powerful supervisory platform to continue our consumer protection efforts," stated AARMR President David Bleicken, Deputy Secretary of Banking for Non-Depository Institutions and Consumer Services in Pennsylvania. "The credit for the success of the NMLS to date belongs to the states," he added. NMLS is a web-based system that allows state-licensed mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, and loan officers to apply for, amend, update or renew licenses online for all participating state agencies using a single set of uniform applications. The system benefits industry and regulatory users by providing efficiency, uniformity and enhanced supervision. An additional nine states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are on track to begin participating in NMLS in 2009: Alaska, Alabama, District of Columbia, Maryland, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. To date, an additional 15 states have indicated they will join NMLS in 2010. According to SRR President Bill Matthews, NMLS has undergone three major upgrades in 2008 that added functionality for system users. New components that were added included data download capabilities, standard report functions, system notifications and license renewal functionality. System enhancements planned for 2009 include electronic submission of financial statements, consumer access, and criminal credit background checks, according to Matthews. In Title V of the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act, signed into law on July 30, 2008, the U.S. Congress recognized the importance of the CSBS/AARMR Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and mandated that all mortgage loan originators must be either federally registered or state-licensed through the NMLS. States are now in the process of passing conforming legislation to comply with the provisions of Title V (also known as the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008.) ?The passage of the S.A.F.E. Act will accelerate state participation in NMLS,? said CSBS President and CEO Neil Milner. ?The tremendous success of NMLS shows that there is no need to set up a duplicative system at the federal level. All in all, we could not be more pleased with NMLS? first year of operations, which makes us excited about what is coming in 2009,? Milner added. ?NMLS is achieving exactly what AARMR and CSBS leaders intended, namely, provide a world class system for the regulation of the mortgage industry, and demonstrates the effective and innovative nature of state regulation,? added Matthews. * * * CSBS is the nationwide organization for state banking, representing the bank regulators of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and approximately 6,200 state-chartered financial institutions. The Conference is responsible for defending state authority to determine banking structure and the products and services state-chartered institutions can offer and for improving the quality of state bank supervision by providing department performance evaluation and accreditation programs and supervisory education/training programs for state banking department personnel. AARMR is the national organization representing state residential mortgage regulators. AARMR's mission is to promote the exchange of information between and among the executives and employees of the various states who are charged with the responsibility for the administration and regulation of residential mortgage lending, servicing and brokering. State Regulatory Registry LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of CSBS and owns and operates the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS). The Board of Managers consists of seven state bank and mortgage regulators. Formed in 2006, SRR is a non-profit corporation based in Washington, D.C. CSBS Information Contact: Bill Matthews, President, State Regulatory Registry LLC, [email protected] (202) 728-5711 AARMR Information Contact: David H. Bleicken, Deputy Secretary of Banking for Non-Depository Institutions and Consumer Services, Pennsylvania, [email protected] (717) 346-9351
