This is the first in our multi-part short article series on mandatory mortgage activity disclosures required by the California Bureau of Real Estate (CalBRE) and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS). This first article discusses the mortgage loan activity notification filing required by the CalBRE.
Mortgage activity reporting
California Bureau of Real Estate (CalBRE) licensees are required to submit periodic reports about their consumer mortgage activity and financial condition to both the CalBRE and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS). [Calif. Business and Professions Codes §§10166.07-08; 12 United States Code §5104(e)]
These loan activity reports are:
- the mortgage loan activity notification (CalBRE Form RE866), reportable to the CalBRE [Bus & P C §10166.02];
- the business activity report, reportable to the CalBRE [Bus & PC §10166.07];
- the residential mortgage loan report (CalBRE Form RE857), reportable to the CalBRE [Calif. Health and Safety Code §§35815-35816]; and
- the mortgage call report, reportable to the NMLS. [12 USC §5104(e)]
None of these reports requires a filing fee.
Editor’s note — CalBRE brokers and agents are required to file additional reports if they collect trust funds or engage in multi-lender transactions (fractionalized trust deeds). Those activities and reports will be the subject of future articles. [Bus & P C §10238]
The broker’s consumer mortgage activity notice (RE866)
A CalBRE licensee who makes, arranges or services consumer mortgages for a fee under their CalBRE license is required to file a mortgage loan activity notification with the CalBRE. In contrast, a licensee who performs consumer mortgage activities only under the authority of a California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) license or as an employee of a federal bank or credit union does not need to make this filing (e.g., a federally registered mortgage loan originator (MLO)).
Editor’s note — A consumer mortgage is a debt incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes and secured by a parcel of real estate containing one-to-four residential units, whether or not the owner occupies the property. [Bus & P C §10131.1(b)]
Note that the activities triggering the filing requirement are not exclusive to MLO-endorsed licensees. While arranging a consumer mortgage for a fee requires a CalBRE licensee to obtain and maintain a MLO endorsement, the funding or servicing of a consumer mortgage does not. Thus, both MLOs and non-MLO licensees who perform these services relating to consumer mortgages are required to make this filing. [Bus & P C §10166.01]
Online filing
The mortgage loan activity notification is filed by each CalBRE licensee within 30 days of commencing the consumer mortgage activity triggering the report. Sales agents are responsible for their personal filings. CalBRE brokers who perform consumer mortgage services using both their personal and designated officer broker licenses file twice:
- once for their personal broker license; and
- once on behalf of the corporation. [Bus & P C §10166.02(a)]
Filing may not be processed on paper and is completed exclusively online at https://secure.dre.ca.gov/elicensing/nmls.asp.
To log in to the system, licensees are required to identify themselves with their:
- CalBRE license number;
- date of birth; and
- social security number.
Then, the licensee may add, amend or cancel a mortgage loan activity notification filing.
Content of the filing
Information provided by the licensee in the mortgage loan activity notification filing includes:
- the licensee’s business telephone number;
- the licensee’s email address;
- the licensee’s NMLS ID number associated with their MLO endorsement, if applicable;
- the type of consumer mortgage activity (fund, broker, buy, sell, exchange or service) the licensee will engage in;
- the type of consumer mortgage origination activity (solicit or negotiate) the licensee will engage in; and
- an indication of whether the licensee also performs mortgage loan activity on non-consumer mortgages.
Updating, cancelling and reinstatement
CalBRE does not mandate a specific update schedule for the mortgage loan activity notification. However, it does require CalBRE licensees to keep the filing up-to-date. Any change in a licensee’s consumer mortgage activities imposes a duty on the licensee to update the information in the filing.
Additionally, a CalBRE licensee needs to cancel the filing if they no longer perform consumer mortgage activities under their CalBRE license.
Cancellation of the filing does not cancel the CalBRE license or any associated MLO endorsements. It simply notifies the CalBRE the licensee is no longer actively engaging in consumer mortgage activity.
For instance, consider a CalBRE sales agent with an MLO endorsement on their license. They work under a CalBRE MLO broker, originating consumer mortgages for two years. Then, they obtain employment as a senior loan officer with a federally regulated bank. In their new position, they originate loans as a federally registered MLO. Since they are no longer using their CalBRE MLO endorsement to originate loans, they are required to cancel their mortgage loan activity filing with the CalBRE.
Licensees with cancelled filings are still required to renew their CalBRE license every four years to continue to perform real estate activities. Likewise, they need to renew their MLO endorsements if they plan on resuming consumer mortgage activity under their CalBRE license endorsement at a later date, and want to avoid the NMLS reapplication process.
To resume any activities which initially triggered the filing, the licensee simply files a new mortgage loan activity notification.
Penalties for failure to timely file
A licensee who fails to timely file the mortgage loan activity notification is subject to a fine of:
- $50 per day for the first 30 days after the filing becomes overdue; and
- $100 per day after the first 30 days, up to a maximum total penalty of $10,000. [Bus & P C §10166.02(f)]
Failure to pay any of the above penalties may result in CalBRE license suspension or revocation. [Bus & P C §10166.02(g)]
The next installment in this article series will discuss the CalBRE business activity report filing.
