The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry launches NMLS Consumer Access Website

The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation announced that the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS), a mortgage licensing system operated by state financial regulators including the Massachusetts Division of Banks, launched the “NMLS Consumer Access”. There hope is that it will help protect mortgage shoppers from unscrupulous loan originators.

NMLS Consumer Access is a fully searchable single-source consumer access website that allows the public to verify state-licensed mortgage lenders, brokers and individuals currently licensed through NMLS. Future updates to NMLS Consumer Access will provide a record of applicable disciplinary actions taken against a licensee by any jurisdiction in the country.

The NMLS Consumer Access website was finally launched in January 2010 and the NMLS Resource Center, claims the website will bring greater transparency to the mortgage industry and compliance with provisions of the SAFE Act.

The database of companies and individuals will be updated nightly and will tell consumers whether the person they're working with has had their license suspended or revoked in another state, and will list any aliases the individual has used since the age of 18. It will also seek to discover whether that person is engaged in other sidelines and what that person’s license status is in other jurisdictions.

You can download a .PDF pamphlet of Information about NMLS Consumer Access prepared by the NMLS Resource Center.