During 2015, the number of home lending companies registered in the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System contracted even as the number of residential loan originators expanded.
(after the publication of this story, the
Conference of State Bank Supervisors provided updated data for federal MLO registrations, state company license holders and dual entities in Q4)
There were 536,804 mortgage loan originators who were registered in the NMLS database as of the fourth-quarter 2015, more than the 531,195 in the system as of the previous quarter.
The total was also up from 524,734 in the fourth-quarter 2014. The year-over-year comparison is more revealing since expiring registrations
remain in the system through year end.
Those details and more were included in the 2015 NMLS Mortgage Industry Report released Monday by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
The total number of originators included 135,016 who were state-licensed and held a total of 408,542 licenses in multiple states.
Non-bank originators grew from 130,284 three months earlier and 131,725 a year earlier.
The number of licenses in Maine was up 35 percent last year — more than any other state. Oklahoma’s license count was up a third, then 31 percent in Oregon, 30 percent in Ohio and 29 percent in Washington, D.C.
With a less than 1 percent annual decline, Hawaii and Massachusetts were the only states with a net drop last year.
Additionally included the originator total were 407,241 who were in the federal registry and working for a financial institution.
Bank originators numbered 405,738 in the third quarter and 398,716 in the fourth-quarter 2014.
Financial institution originators in Alaska
grew by 12 percent — the biggest year-over-year gain of any state. A 10 percent increase was recorded in the District of Columbia, followed by 9 percent in New Hampshire, 8 percent in North Carolina and 7 percent in Rhode Island.
A nearly 9 percent loss in Delaware was the biggest decline of any state.
The combined fourth-quarter 2015 total was reduced by 5,453 to account for originators who were both state-licensed and federally registered.
There were 26,127 companies that were registered in the NMLS database
as of the most-recent period, more than 25,929 three months earlier but fewer than 26,486 a year earlier.
State-licensed companies accounted for 16,005 of the latest total and held 37,856 total licenses.
Non-bank entities increased from 15,837 in the third quarter but were off from 16,022 in the fourth-quarter 2014.
State-licensed companies had 21,182 branches that held 48,391 licenses as of the most-recent period.
Another 10,220 companies were financial institutions included in the federal registry.
Bank and credit union count was up from 10,191 in the previous quarter but down from 10,566 in the year-earlier period.
The fourth-quarter 2015 overall total was reduced by 98 registrations to reflect companies registered both as a financial institution and as a state-licensed entity.
