New licensing requirements in the Aloha State impact companies that perform servicing duties as well as mortgage servicers with loan originators that handle loan modifications.
The Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions started accepting new application requests through the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry on Monday.
The mortgage servicer license is required for anyone who is responsible for receiving any scheduled periodic payments from a residential loan borrower.
It is also required for anyone who is responsible for making payments to the owner of the loan or other third parties of principal and interest and such other payments.
On home-equity conversion mortgages and reverse mortgages, those who make payments to the borrowers are also considered servicers.
Exempted from the requirement is anybody engaging in the activity of an insured depository institution, as are trust companies, credit unions, insurance companies and financial service loan companies licensed by the state.
Licenses are also unnecessary for anybody who acquires no more than five residential loans with their own funds for their own investment.
In addition, Hawaii’s “Mortgage Servicer MLO Company License” will now be known as “Mortgage Servicers Loan Modification License.”
The modification license is required by a servicer that employs individuals who conduct mortgage loan origination activity with respect to mortgage loan modifications.
Individuals who are employed by, or acting as the exclusive agent of, a mortgage loan originator company are not required to obtain a modification license. The same goes for mortgage loan originator companies and exempt sponsoring mortgage loan originator companies.