Did you Miss the Michigan Requirement to Register Loan Officers?

Michigan requires mortgage companies to register loan originators and the deadline was April 1, 2009. If you did not submit registration applications for your loan officers to the NMLS, they cannot originate loans for you now.

The first thing you need to do is notify the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation that you are employing a loan officer who is not registered in Michigan. Then the company must register the loan officer through the NMLS. The loan officer must give the employer access to the NMLS record, then the company must request attestation from the loan officer before the company can submit the MU4. Once the loan officer completes the attestation, then the company can submit the MU4.

Loan officers must get fingerprinted to get registered. The company must get an Agency ID number from the Michigan State Police to be used for all loan officers that it employs. If your company is located in Michigan, your loan officers will schedule an appointment for a LiveScan Fingerprint. If you are out-of-state, you need to use FBI fingerprint cards.

In addition to the fingerprinting, Michigan requires 24 hours of pre-licensing education taken through an approved provider. If you have been employed as a loan officer in 4-1/2 out of the last 5 years, you are exempt from the pre-licensing education. Then you have to pass a test with a score of at least 75%.

If your loans officers did not get registered before the April 1, 2009 deadline, your loan officers can originate loans for the next 90 days only if they are not compensated for their originations and if they meet the “notification” requirement (which means that the loan officer had their fingerprints taken, the fingerprints were submitted to the Michigan State Police and the FBI for criminal background checks, there are no disqualifying results from the background check, and the employer notified the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation of the loan officer’s employment).

The Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation promises to conduct investigations to ensure that loan officers are properly registered. Failure to register your loan officers will lead to penalties and fines.