New – Commissioner
The Search Committee of the Texas Finance Commission has narrowed its search for a new commissioner for the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending to final candidates and recommended interviews with the entire Finance Commission. An earlier version stated the search had been narrowed to a single final candidate.
New – Rule Making
As a result of statutory changes coming out of the 87th Texas Legislature, the department is creating new rules as well as amending existing rules. This includes expanded branch licensing requirements to define and include Administrative Offices. Other additions to Chapters 80 and 81 rules generally capture longstanding practices. A new Chapter 78 was created covering new authority over Wrap Mortgage activities. All the changes have varying effective dates can be found on the Department’s website News section https://www.sml.texas.gov/news/.
New Surge – Texas Licenses in 2021
A new wave of license applicants hit the department over the last two years. Fewer than 10,000 new license applications were processed for each of the three years from 2017 to 2019. But that all changed in calendar year 2020 when 16,500 new license requests were received. At the current pace new license applications for 2021 will exceed 23,000. This workload increase alone can explain the extended approval times without even considering the thousands of filed amendments and sponsorship change requests.
Processing times have been significantly reduced lately to an average of 45 days. Following the renewal season surge, the hope is to continue driving this turnaround time back to the historic average of 15 – 20 days.
Most common reasons for delayed MLO license approval
- Mailing address and Residential Address do not match.
- Address listed under the Employment History does not match the address they are linked to under the Registered Location.
- Applicant changes Personal Name without uploading supporting documents entered into NMLS
- Failure to provide documents in NMLS when the applicant answers “No” to the U.S. Citizen question
- Payment for Sponsorship Request or License Request made by ACH payment (10 calendar day hold on the receipt of the funds.)
Re-Newals – Texas Licenses in 2022
License renewal season opens next week. Last year the department initiated automatic renewal reviews for the first time. However, your approval will be kicked out of auto renewal if you have not cleared all outstanding deficiencies or requirements in your record. Please review your information today.
New License Fee Schedule
The Department has posted two new fee schedules on the website — https://www.sml.texas.gov/mortgage-origination/licensing/
New – Website Design
If you hit the above link to review the rule changes you saw a brand new website. The department invites suggested improvements as you navigate where things are now located or cannot find something you found valuable in the past.
New – Emerging Issues Call
All interested parties are invited to join an Emerging Issues Mortgage Industry WebEx meeting on the Third Tuesday of each month at 9:30am (central time). To receive an invitation and reminders ask to be added to the Mortgage Stakeholders List at smlinfo@sml.texas.gov
If you have any licensing, examination, or regulatory questions, please reach out to me at Doug.Foster@mortgagelaw.com. Please note that our firm is available for all services and issues relating to residential mortgage lending.
Our team can be accessed through https://www.mortgagelaw.com/people.