CFPBG_20200721_omb

Supporting Statement for the
Registration of Mortgage Loan Originators
(CFPB G; OMB No. 7100-0328)
Summary
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), under authority
delegated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has extended for three years,
without revision, the Registration of Mortgage Loan Originators (CFPB G; OMB No.
7100-0328). In accordance with the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act
(SAFE Act), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Regulation G requires
residential mortgage loan originators (MLOs) to register with the Nationwide Mortgage
Licensing System and Registry (NMLS or Registry),1 maintain this registration, obtain a unique
identifier, and disclose to consumers upon request and through the Registry their unique
identifier and the MLO’s employment history and publicly adjudicated disciplinary and
enforcement actions. The CFPB’s regulation also requires the institutions employing MLOs to
adopt and follow written policies and procedures to ensure that their employees comply with
these requirements and to conduct annual independent compliance tests. The CFPB’s regulation
applies to a broad range of financial institutions and their employees. Regarding entities
supervised by the Board, the CFPB’s regulation applies to state member banks (SMBs) with $10
billion or less in total assets that are not affiliates of insured depository institutions with total
assets of more than $10 billion; subsidiaries of such SMBs that are not functionally regulated
within the meaning of section 5(c)(5) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956; branches and
agencies of foreign banks (other than federal branches, federal agencies, and insured state
branches of foreign banks); and commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign
banks; and their employees who act as MLOs.
The estimated total annual burden for the CFPB G is 103,191 hours.
Background and Justification
The SAFE Act, enacted on July 30, 2008, required the Board, Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), former Office of Thrift
Supervision (OTS), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and Farm Credit
Administration (FCA) to jointly implement rules and develop and maintain a federal registration
system for those MLOs employed by agency-regulated institutions. The SAFE Act provides that
the objectives of the Registry are to aggregate and improve the flow of information to and
between regulators, provide increased accountability and tracking of MLOs, enhance consumer
protections, reduce fraud in the residential mortgage loan origination process, and provide
consumers with easily accessible information at no charge regarding the employment history of
and publicly adjudicated disciplinary and enforcement actions against MLOs. On July 28, 2010,
the Board amended Regulation H - Membership of State Banking Institutions in the Federal
Reserve System (12 CFR Part 208) to implement the SAFE Act with respect to its regulated

1

https://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/Pages/default.aspx.

entities.2
On July 21, 2011, provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) transferred certain SAFE Act responsibilities to the
CFPB, including rulemaking authority for all federal depository institutions and supervisory
authority for SAFE Act compliance for entities under the CFPB’s jurisdiction.3 On December 19,
2011, the CFPB published an interim final rule establishing a new Regulation G,4 SAFE
Mortgage Licensing Act - Federal Registration of Residential Mortgage Loan Originators.5 The
Board subsequently repealed its regulations implementing the SAFE Act.6 The CFPB’s rule did
not impose any new substantive obligations on regulated persons or entities beyond the
obligations that had been in the rules of the Board and the other agencies. The Board retains
supervisory authority for SAFE Act compliance for SMBs with $10 billion or less in total assets
that are not affiliates of insured depository institutions with total assets of more than $10 billion;
subsidiaries of such SMBs that are not functionally regulated within the meaning of section
5(c)(5) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956; branches and agencies of foreign banks
(other than federal branches, federal agencies, and insured state branches of foreign banks); and
commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks; and their employees who
act as MLOs.
This information is not available from other sources.
Description of Information Collection
The CFPB’s Regulation G requires MLO employees of federally regulated depository
institutions to register, obtain a unique identifier, and maintain their registration. The regulation
also requires Board-supervised entities to ensure compliance by their MLO employees and
establish written policies and procedures. These requirements are described in 12 CFR sections
1007.103, 1007.104, and 1007.105. Details of the requirements for each section are provided
below.
Sections 1007.103(a), (b), (c)(1), (c)(2), and (d) (Registration of mortgage loan
originators) and section 1007.105 (Use of unique identifier). Generally, sections 1007.103(a) and
(b) require an employee of a depository institution that engages in the business of a MLO to
register with the Registry, maintain such registration, and obtain an unique identifier. Section
1007.103(c)(1) provides that registration pursuant to section 1007.103(a)(1) is effective on the
date the Registry transmits notification to the registrant that the registrant is registered. Section
1007.103(c)(2) provides that a renewal or update pursuant to section 1007.103(b) is effective on
2

75 FR 44656 (July 28, 2010). See also 75 FR 51623 (August 23, 2010) (correcting footnote numbering in preamble
to 75 FR 44656).
3
The Dodd-Frank Act transferred to the CFPB examination and enforcement responsibility for the SAFE Act for
insured depository institutions with over $10 billion in total consolidated assets and their affiliates (collectively,
covered institutions). For state member banks with $10 billion or less in total consolidated assets that are not
affiliated with a covered institution, the Federal Reserve retained its SAFE Act examination and enforcement
authority.
4
12 CFR 1007.
5
76 FR 78483 (December 19, 2011).
6
84 FR 21691 (May 15, 2019).

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the date the Registry transmits notification to the registrant that the registration has been renewed
or updated. Section 1007.103(d) describes the categories of information that an employee, or the
employing depository institution on the employee’s behalf, must submit to the Registry, with the
employee’s attestation as to the correctness of the information supplied, and his or her
authorization to obtain further information. Section 1007.105 requires a registered MLO to
provide his or her unique identifier to a consumer upon request, before acting as a MLO, and
through the originator’s initial written communication with a consumer, if any.
Depository Institutions - Section 1007.103(e) (Registration of mortgage loan originators),
section 1007.104 (Policies and procedures), and section 1007.105 (Use of unique identifier).
Section 1007.103(e) specifies institution and employee information that a depository institution
would submit to the Registry in connection with the initial registration of one or more MLOs and
thereafter update. Section 1007.104 requires that an agency-regulated institution employing
MLOs adopt and follow written policies and procedures, at a minimum addressing certain
specified areas, but otherwise appropriate to the nature, size, complexity, and scope of its
mortgage lending activities. Section 1007.105 requires a depository institution to make the
unique identifier(s) of its registered MLOs available to consumers in a manner and method
practicable for the institution.
Respondent Panel
The Board’s CFPB Regulation G panel is comprised of SMBs with $10 billion or less in
total assets that are not affiliates of insured depository institutions with total assets of more than
$10 billion; subsidiaries of such SMBs that are not functionally regulated within the meaning of
section 5(c)(5) of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956; branches and agencies of foreign
banks (other than federal branches, federal agencies, and insured state branches of foreign
banks); and commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks (collectively,
banking organizations), as well as employees of banking organizations who act as residential
mortgage loan originators (MLOs).
Time Schedule for Information Collection
This information collection contains reporting, recordkeeping, and disclosure
requirements, as described above. The Registry must be updated at least annually, but within 30
days if there are certain changes. There are also episodic disclosures to consumers.
Public Availability of Data
Certain information that is derived Registry data is made available to the public through
the NMLS’s Consumer AccessSM portal, a free service for consumers to confirm that the
financial services company or professional with whom they wish to conduct business is federally
registered or authorized to conduct business in their state. The portal provides consumers with
the unique identifiers and the employment history of, and the publicly adjudicated disciplinary
and enforcement actions against, MLOs.7
7

Consumer AccessSM (https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/) contains licensing/registration information on

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Legal Status
The CFPB’s Regulation G is authorized pursuant to the SAFE Act and the Dodd-Frank
Act, which transferred to the CFPB the “consumer financial protection functions,” including the
SAFE Act, previously vested in certain other Federal agencies.8 The Board is authorized to
enforce consumer financial protection functions, including the CFPB’s Regulation G, with
respect to SMBs with $10 billion or less in total consolidated assets and their respective
subsidiaries that are not functionally regulated within the meaning of section 5(c)(5) of the Bank
Holding Company Act of 1956 (see 12 U.S.C. § 1844(c)(5)) under section 1061 of the Dodd
Frank Act (12 U.S.C. § 5581(c)). The International Banking Act of 1978 (IBA) requires every
branch or agency of a foreign bank and every commercial lending company to conduct its
operations in the United States in full compliance with provisions of any law of the United State
which impose requirements that protect the rights of consumers in financial transactions, to the
extent the branch, agency, or commercial lending company engages in activities that are subject
to such laws (12 U.S.C. § 3106(a)(1)). The Board has authority to examine branches and
agencies of foreign banks and commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign
banks and to enforce the provisions of the IBA pursuant to sections 7 and 13 of the IBA
(12 U.S.C. §§ 3105(c) and 3108(b)). The CFPB G is mandatory.
The unique identifier of MLOs must be made public and is not considered confidential.
In addition, most of the information that MLOs submit in order to register with the Nationwide
Mortgage Licensing System and Registry will be publicly available. However, certain
identifying data about individuals who act as MLOs may be entitled to confidential treatment
under (b)(6) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects from disclosure
information that “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”
(5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)).
With respect to the information collection requirements imposed on depository
institutions, because the requirements require that depository institutions retain their own records
and make certain disclosures to customers, the FOIA would only be implicated if the Board’s
examiners obtained a copy of these records as part of the examination or supervision process of a
financial institution. However, records obtained in this manner are exempt from disclosure under
FOIA exemption (b)(8), regarding examination-related materials (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(8)).
Consultation outside the Agency
There has been no consultation outside the Federal Reserve System.
Public Comments
On January 16, 2020, the Board published an initial notice in the Federal Register (85 FR
2742) requesting public comment for 60 days on the extension, without revision, of the CFPB G.
mortgage, consumer finance, debt, and money services companies, branches, and individuals licensed by state
regulatory agencies participating in the NMLS. It also contains information regarding federal agency-regulated
institutions and their MLOs who are registered with the NMLS.
8
12 U.S.C. § 5101 et seq; 12 U.S.C. § 5581.

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The comment period for this notice expired on March 16, 2020. The Board did not receive any
comments. On May 11, 2020, the Board published a final notice in the Federal Register (85 FR
27744).
Estimate of Respondent Burden
As shown in the table below, the estimated total annual burden for the CFPB G is
103,191 hours. These reporting, recordkeeping, and disclosure requirements represent 1.1
percent of the Board’s total paperwork burden.
Estimated
number of
respondents

CFPB G
Reporting
Section 1007.103(a)
MLOs (new) initial set-up
Disclosure
Section 1007.103(a)
MLOs (new) disclosure
Recordkeeping
Section 1007.103(b)
MLOs (existing) maintenance
and disclosure
Reporting
Sections 1007.103(c)(1) and (2)
MLOs (existing) updates for
changes
Recordkeeping
Sections 1007.103(e), 1007.104,
and 1007.105
Banking organizations

Estimated
Estimated
Annual
average hours annual burden
frequency
per response
hours

396

1

2.5

990

396

1

1.0

396

22,844

1

0.85

19,417

11,422

1

0.25

2,856

6749

1

118

Total

79,532
103,191

The estimated total annual cost to the public for the CFPB G is $5,959,280.10
Sensitive Questions
These collections of information contain no questions of a sensitive nature, as defined by
9

Of these respondents, 465 are considered small entities as defined by the Small Business Administration (i.e.,
entities with less than $600 million in total assets), https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards.
10
Total cost to the public was estimated using the following formula: percent of staff time, multiplied by annual
burden hours, multiplied by hourly rates (30% Office & Administrative Support at $20, 45% Financial Managers at
$71, 15% Lawyers at $70, and 10% Chief Executives at $93). Hourly rates for each occupational group are the
(rounded) mean hourly wages from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), Occupational Employment and Wages
May 2019, published March 31, 2020, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. Occupations are defined
using the BLS Standard Occupational Classification System, https://www.bls.gov/soc/.

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OMB guidelines.
Estimate of Cost to the Federal Reserve System
The estimated cost to the Federal Reserve System for collecting and processing this
information collection is negligible.

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