The Mortgage Licensing Bill is Here!!

House Bill 162, "the Mortgage Licensing Bill", was introduced into the Alaska House of Representatives on February 28th, 2007 by Rep. Bob Lynn.

This piece of sweeping consumer protection legislation has been tri-authored by the Alaska Association of Mortgage Brokers, the Alaska Mortgage Bankers Associatikon and the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

Below are some of the highlights of "the Mortgage Licensing Bill."  To view House Bill 162 in it's entirety please click here.

  1.    Requires pre-licensing compentency testing for all originators.
  2.    Requires a 7 year all-state and federal background check
         including fingerprints.
  3.    Requires state certified continuing education courses be
         completed.
  4.    Requires that an originator work for, or under contract for, a
         bonded and State approved Mortgage Licensee.

In addition, the legislation provides penalities for enethical behavior, false, misleading, or deceptive advertising and requires compliance with all applicable Federal Law. (i.e.  RESPA, HMDA, CRA, CCPA, FHA of 1968, etc.)

Please take the time to read this bill carefully as it will dramatically impact the way in which our industry moves forward.

We look forward to your support of this consumer protection legislation.

Any questions or comments may be directed to:
Joe Brammer
Legislative Committee Chair
Alaska Association of Mortgage Brokers
joe@akamb.org

The AKAMB Legislative Committee is working on upcoming legislation to cover mortgage companies and originators. If you have concerns on this topic please let us know.

This year we are going to be working with the Alaska Mortgage Bankers (AMBA) on the bill. We would like to have a draft completed and out to the membership by the middle of September. Using as a model, the last Senate Bill, and the proposed Originator’s bill from the Division of Banking, we will come up with a draft. We would like to get it out to our members for comments and proposed changes. That way we can work with AMBA and the Division of Banking to come up with a final draft bill.

Once we have a final bill, Roger Prince from the Division of Banking can go over it and draft proposed regulations to implement the bill. This will go a long way in taking some of the mystery out of vague language that will be in the bill. After that is hashed out, we can get it out to the members for final review, then look for sponsor in the legislature to get the bill introduced.

It is imperative that we receive your input right away. Last year as you recall, we were constantly behind the eight ball on this legislation. This year we intend to be on top of the situation and get legislation that will work!