FROM THE DESK OF THE ‘OM-BOBS-MAN’

Location, Location, Location

FOR MORTGAGE LENDERS, WORKSPACE FLEXIBILITY MATTERS

By BOB NIEMI, MORTGAGE BANKER MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Flexibility Matters in life and more. Business and personal plans can change by choice and by impact. Certainly, after a yearlong period of working from home, we should all understand the need to adapt and pivot when circumstances mandate. While mortgage licensing flexibility has been a critical component to protect mortgage employees and our customers during the pandemic, the need for flexibility with Work From Home will continue well beyond.

The investment in technology by mortgage companies in the last ten years has rapidly evolved how today’s mortgage business is conducted. Consumers drive the time and location well beyond the 9:00 to 5:00 office world. Working with consumers via the telephone, internet or application-based system has become common place and not reserved for the licensed branch location.

Mortgage companies today utilize business models that promote faster and safer processes when the right technology, secure access and training are in place. This provides homebuyers an enhanced process if not thesame experience with the mortgage originator working from a branch. Authorizing remote work merely allows licensed mortgage companies to provide critical financial services to today’s homebuyer.

WFH RULES THE DAY

Work From Home is NOT about unlicensed branching. While there are several states that do not license individual locations, Work From Home is not a mandate to open unlicensed offices to evade state licensing requirements.

Work From Home is an effort to allow originators, processors, servicing representatives to all work from a time and location that meets the needs of their customer. Again, this is not customers making an application or making mortgage payments in an employee’s home. The employee of the licensed mortgage company is supervised and is providing the same telephone or internet-based services as if they were physically sitting in a licensed branch location.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and American Financial Services Associations (AFSA) both the support Work From Home initiative beyond the pandemic. Both AFSA and MBA have come out with model language to allow supervised employees to work from home or another remote location. The model language of both AFSA and MBA both have common message that branch licensing is not impacted. Only the ability to meet the needs of the customer at a time and place determined by the consumer. These actions would be prohibited in more than twenty states today.

SAFEGUARDS REMAIN

There are safeguards in both model statutes as well to ensure consumer information if protected with cybersecurity protocols, data security, and secure connections as included in the company’s written policies and procedures. Customer interactions and conversations about consumers must be conducted in compliance with all federal and state information security requirements.

While we hope this pandemic is drawing near a close, the need for flexibility will continue. We have all seen regional and national disasters like hurricanes, wildfires and winter storms. These all impact how a mortgage company could provide essential financial services to homebuyers and impacted homeowners. Flexibility provides answers in advance of the next emergency.

For more information including the MBA model language, visit mba.org/LicensingFlexibility

BOB NIEMI