Minnesota Mortgage Industry Regulation Having the Desired Effect
“We wanted to make tougher to be in this business, and it’s working,” ~ MN Commerce Department spokesman Bill Walsh Word. Minnesota’s tougher mortgage industry regulation, passed into law last year, seems to be having the desired effect: Brokers are forfeiting licenses, and there is a fairly broad consolidation move afoot as smaller brokers and their employees are being absorbed by larger, more established local and national outfits. From the Star-tribune: The state’s 1,319 active originators last week were down from more than 4,000 last year at this time. Many of them surrendered their licenses after new state laws aimed at making it tougher to be in the mortgage business were implemented last year. On thing to keep in mind here is that less originator licenses don’t necessarily mean less people in the business. Assuredly, many marginal loan originators have simply left the business, particularly in the sub-prime and Alt-a space, but many of these folks simply have merged or consolidated with other lenders, or banks, and no longer needed a separate, stand alone license.