AB 383

In

2009 Wisconsin Act 2

, provisions of the federal Secure and Fair Enforcement

for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 were adopted into state law, including provisions

establishing standards for the licensing of mortgage loan originators. A mortgage

loan originator is, with specified exceptions, an individual who takes a residential

mortgage loan application or offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan

for compensation or gain. Beginning on January 1, 2010, the Division of Banking in

the Department of Financial Institutions (division) may issue a mortgage loan

originator license to an applicant only if the applicant satisfies certain criteria. The

applicant must provide: fingerprints for submission to the Federal Bureau of

Investigation for a state, national, and international criminal history background

check; personal history information; and authorization for the release of information

related to any administrative, civil, or criminal findings against the applicant. The

division may not issue a mortgage loan originator license to an applicant if the

applicant has previously had a mortgage loan originator license revoked. The

division also may not issue a mortgage loan originator license to an applicant if the

applicant has been convicted of a felony in a domestic, foreign, or military court as

follows: 1) if the felony involved an act of fraud, dishonesty, breach of trust, or money

laundering, the felony disqualifies the applicant from holding a mortgage loan

originator's license regardless of when the felony conviction occurred; or 2) if the

felony is not one described in item 1), above, the felony disqualifies the applicant from

holding a mortgage loan originator's license only if the felony conviction occurred

within seven years prior to the license application. The division may only renew a

mortgage loan originator license if the mortgage loan originator continues to meet

the minimum standards for license issuance.

This bill specifies that an applicant convicted of a felony involving an act of

theft, embezzlement, forgery, perjury, deceit, extortion, or manufacturing,

distribution, or delivery of a controlled substance or controlled substance analog is

disqualified from holding a mortgage loan originator license regardless of when the

felony conviction occurred.