Licensing System Registers 11K+ LOs

More than 11,000 loan officers have already registered with the five-month-old Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. Add more than 8,700 principals, owners, and branch managers who also have joined the system, and the tally is nearly 20,000, according to figures released at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' annual conference in Amelia Island Plantation, Fla. The CSBS operates the licensing system, which went live in January in eight states. Created in conjunction with the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, the system is designed to bring greater accountability and transparency to the mortgage business. The system now contains more than 6,100 company, branch, and individual licensees, and nearly 11,200 more applications are pending. Some 330 licenses have been "terminated" since the NMLS went live Jan. 2, most likely because they were voluntarily surrendered but possibly because some were revoked. A total of 18 states are scheduled to participate in the NMLS by the end of the year, and 42 agencies in 40 states have signed letters of intent to join the system eventually.