""Embrace Home Loans"":http://www.embracehomeloans.com, a Newport, Rhode Island-based direct lender for ""Fannie Mae"":http://www.fanniemae.com and ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com, has met the licensing requirements of the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing (SAFE) Act.
[IMAGE]""We have been preparing for the SAFE Act for more than a year and consequently have invested thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars in resources to ensure all of our loan officers are ready to meet the requirements of the SAFE Act,"" said Kurt Noyce, president of Embrace Home Loans.
Noyce continued, ""We are in favor of the regulations and believe this is an important step in terms of protecting consumers and ensuring only credible and professional loan officers remain employed. We believe the entire industry, not just non-depository lenders, should be held to this standard in an effort to restore professionalism and ensure the consumer's best interest is honored.""
[COLUMN_BREAK]The SAFE Act requires that all residential loan officers who are employees of agency-regulated institutions be licensed through a series of requirements put into place by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS). These standards are designed to enhance consumer protection by promoting transparency in mortgage lending, but licensing requirements apply only to non-depository lenders.
For Embrace Home Loans, meeting SAFE Act requirements was a complicated process, according to Noyce.
""Our loan officers originate loans in more than one state, which now means they need licensure in multiple states,"" Noyce said. ""We developed and coordinated a comprehensive plan for each loan officer to ensure they received adequate training and had a clear set of deadlines to have all required documentation submitted. Our training department was dedicated to helping each of our loan officers meet the new requirements-it truly was a team effort.""
The process for compliance begins with pre-licensure education courses, which the loan officer must then sustain annually in continuing education courses, and continues with a written exam to evaluate competence, a credit check for financial responsibility, and a criminal background check.
The cost for SAFE Act compliance is incurred by the lending institution on behalf of the loan officer and must be done in every state in which they plan to do business.