The West Virginia legislature recently amended its application fee and education provisions of the Safe Mortgage Licensing Act (“Act”), effective May 18, 2018.  The Wisconsin legislature recently amended its laws governing confidentiality of financial information, effective April 18, 2018.

West Virginia House Bill 4285

Applicants for a license must apply in a form as prescribed by the West Virginia Commissioner of Financial Institutions.  The application must be submitted with an application fee of $200 (previously $50) plus the actual cost of fingerprint processing, together with any processing fee assessed by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry.

To meet the prelicensing education requirement, a person must complete at least twenty-four (previously twenty-two) hours of approved education which must include at least:

• Three hours of federal law and regulations;
• Three hours of ethics, which must include instruction on fraud, consumer protection and fair lending issues;
• Two hours of training related to lending standards for the nontraditional mortgage product marketplace; and
• Four (previously two) hours of training related to West Virginia mortgage and consumer laws or issues.

To meet the annual continuing education requirements, a licensed mortgage loan originator must complete at least nine (previously 8) hours of approved education which must include at least:

• Three hours of federal law and regulations;
• Two hours of ethics, which must include instruction on fraud, consumer protection and fair lending issues;
• Two hours of training related to lending standards for the nontraditional mortgage product marketplace; and
• Two (previously one) hours of West Virginia law or regulations.

Wisconsin Assembly Bill 822

The Wisconsin Office of Credit Unions (the “Office”) may now furnish to a federal home loan bank, upon request, a copy of any examination report made by, or other supervisory information created by, the Office of any credit union, if the federal home loan bank agrees to treat the information received with the same degree of confidentiality that is required of employees of the Office.

Except as otherwise provided, the total of outstanding loans and extensions of credit, both direct and indirect, made by a savings bank to a single person shall be subject to limits established by rule of the Wisconsin Division of Banking (the “Division”), but may not exceed 20% (previously 15%) of the savings bank’s capital.

Total outstanding loans and extensions of credit, both direct and indirect, made by a savings bank to a single person may exceed the 20% (previously 15%) limit, but may not exceed 25% of the savings bank’s capital, if all loans or extensions of credit that exceed the 20% (previously 15%) limit are at least 100% secured by readily marketable collateral having a market value that may be determined by reliable and continuously available price quotations.

In conducting examinations, the Office of Credit Unions or the Division of Banking may accept and rely on information collected by other agencies or independent 3rd parties in determining whether an organization has satisfied any requirement that is part of the examination.

Employees of the Division and members of the review board may not disclose information gathered by examination of or obtained through reports from a savings bank or from a state or federal financial institution regulatory authority except to any of the following:

• Directors, officers or employees of the savings bank if required to administer these provisions;
• A state or federal financial institution regulatory authority if the regulatory authority agrees to keep the information confidential;
• A court, or law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies for use in investigating or prosecuting a crime involving that information;
• The savings bank’s independent certified public accountants;
• The savings bank’s deposit insurance corporation;
• A federal home loan bank if the federal home loan bank agrees to keep the information confidential.

The Division may furnish to a federal home loan bank a copy of any examination report made by, or other supervisory information created by, the division of any savings and loan association if the federal home loan bank agrees to keep the examination report or other information confidential.