Mortgage Broker Contraction May Be Greater than Thought

Contraction in the mortgage broker arena may be even greater than most realize, if statistics presented in Savannah at the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators' annual conference are on target. According to data compiled by the National Mortgage Licensing System, only 49% of the nearly 90,000 brokers licensed in 14 states signed up to be on the mandatory NMLS system. Worse, just 36% of those who went on to the NMLS have renewed their licenses. "It's unbelievable how quickly things have changed," remarked Bill Matthews, president of the State Regulatory Registry, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' affiliate which operates the NMLS. The 14 states are the earliest adapters of the NMLS and have been on the system long enough to go through their first renewal period. They are: Connecticut, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.