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The Safe Act went into effect on January 1, 2011. In a nutshell, the Safe Act requires mortgage loan officers to meet a national standard of qualification. This qualification includes; completion of a 20 hour training, passing a national and state exam, an FBI criminal clearance, and a credit report approval. Now, each loan officer and mortgage brokerage firm in the nation is assigned a NMLS number, which stands for Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. All of this new requirements is for the betterment of the mortgage industry in the U.S. and the intent is to benefit the mortgage borrower. 

Now borrowers can access the Website, www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org, to verify if the loan officer and company is approved under the Safe Act. My personal NMLS number is #340179, and Legacy Mortgage NMLS number is #389862.

Prior to the enactment of the Safe Act, mortgage loan officers were mainly regulated by state agencies only. The Safe Act has made the mortgage industry a national regulated industry.

Interestingly, bank loan officers are not required to meet the NMLS requirement. They do not need a FBI criminal back ground check, no review of their credit report, no national and state exam, and definitely no 20 hours of national training. Now, the mortgage brokerage industry loan officers are more qualified than the bank loan officers.