Broker association announces passage of House Bill 2340
By MortgageDaily.com staff
3/1/2006

A new law will make Washington mortgage brokers the only state-certified and licensed individuals in the mortgage industry.

The Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers announced Tuesday the passage of State House Bill 2340, a legislative effort to reduce potential fraud.

The Mortgage Brokers Practices Act, which will be enacted in January, involves loan officer licensing and expands the branch examination window by the Washington's Department of Financial Institutions. Additionally, the bill's passage will ultimately further elevate the integrity of the mortgage broker industry because "mortgage brokers become the only State-certified and licensed mortgage professionals available to consumers-unmatched by even mortgage bankers," according to the announcement.

"As an association we highly respect the interests of consumers and are extremely pleased that our state legislators unanimously supported the passing of this bill because it adds new levels of protections for consumers," WAMB President Jeff Berglund stated in the written statement.

The department has always had the authority to examine an office within its first two years, but budget constraints limited the staff needed to facilitate the examinations. The new law extends the examination window to five years and allows the staff to perform these.

The examinations will mostly serve to expose training or knowledge deficits that can be corrected, versus the more rare circumstance of outright fraud. This will enable the department to provide guidance to brokers found to be non-compliant without any punitive results, WAMB reported.

Most "often highly regulated industries uncover noncompliance due to a naive lack of knowledge, which is why WAMB is dedicated to offering programs that support the professional development of mortgage brokers with ongoing training," Berglund added.

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