Repeat Violations Cost Cornerstone Home Lending's Georgia License

Cornerstone Home Lending surrendered its license to originate loans in the state of Georgia and will pay $33,500 under the terms of a consent order reached with state banking regulators.

Cornerstone is a repeated offender of the Georgia Residential Mortgage Act, including violating a previous consent order issued in July 2011, the state Department of Banking and Finance alleged in an August 2014 action against the Houston-based nonbank lender.

Under the terms of the April 23 consent order, Cornerstone neither admits or denies wrongdoing, and is "voluntarily" surrendering its state license. In addition, Cornerstone shall pay $28,500 to the state banking department and $5,000 to State Regulatory Registry, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' subsidiary that operates the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry.

Cornerstone's owners, Judith Belanger and Marcus Laird, are also prohibited from "directing the affairs" or otherwise serving as an executive or owner of a mortgage broker or lender licensed by the state for five years, the consent order stipulates.

Cornerstone and its two owners also agreed to withdraw their request to contest the Georgia department's findings. The lender previously closed its branch office in Georgia in 2014, said Jennifer Weber, Cornerstone Home Lending director of marketing, in an emailed response to a request for comment.

"Since CHL conducts no lending operations in the state, it decided to settle the matter which will save considerable time and money," Weber added.

Cornerstone, which previously operated in Georgia under the name Brayden Capital Home Loans, employed two unlicensed loan officers, including one individual who was denied a license, according to the allegations of a July 2011 consent order with the Georgia Department of Banking. Both men were subsequently hired to work as mortgage loan officers by depository institutions in the state, though neither is currently employed as mortgage originators.

Cornerstone has previously faced regulatory scrutiny from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which reached a settlement with the lender over allegations that it denied mortgages to women on maternity leave. In that case, Cornerstone paid one woman $15,000, and set up a $750,000 victims' fund to compensate other individuals who might have been discriminated against because they were pregnant or on maternity leave at the time they applied for a loan.