Louisiana State added new legislation regarding mortgage brokers. Referred to as HB 810, it substitutes the present regulatory system for mortgage professionals with a new system based on the federal requirements. The previous law required mortgage lenders and brokers to attain a $50,000 license bond. As presented, this bill would have required mortgage lenders, brokers and originators to acquire a surety bond with an amount that is calculated using the total amount of loans originated. The lenders surety bond amount would have varied from $100,000 to $500,000; for brokers and originators the surety bond quantity would have ranged from $25,000 to $150,000.

When the bill was amended and enacted, the surety bond that must be attained with an application for a license as a mortgage lender, broker or loan originator must be $45,000 if the loan volume in the pervious year was $99,999,999 or less and $50,000 if the loan volume was $100 million or greater. The mortgage originators that are the workers of a mortgage lender or broker can use their employer’s surety bond to comply with the proposed requirements. In place of the surety bond, a licensee can deposit a quantity equivalent to the surety bond requirement in a federal insured depository establishment in Louisiana.

In Kansas, new legislation was written relating to mortgage brokers. The new law is labeled SB 240 and requires the banking commissioner to promulgate the surety bond quantity required of mortgage brokers, which must be no less than the existing $50,000 bond if the broker preserves an office in Kansas. The surety bond may not be less than $100,000 if there is not an office preserved in the State. The present law authorizes termination of the surety bond with 30 days warning, and the new law now identifies that such cancelation would not influence the surety’s liability for infringements of the Kansas Mortgage Business Act that arose before the effective date of termination. Additionally, SB 240 states that the surety bond principal and the surety “shall be and remain liable for a time frame of two years from the date of any action or inaction of principal that gives rise to a claim under the bond.”

Indiana State has added a new law relating to loan brokers and mortgage loan originators within the state. Titled HB 1646, the new law requires loan brokers, mortgage loan originators and principal managers to be licensed. Both originators and principal managers are staff of the loan broker, and HB 1646 requires that the broker’s surety bond must cover the actions of such personnel. The surety bond figure is calculated by the sum amount of residential mortgage loans originated in the prior calendar year. If the sum is $5 million or less, the surety bond amount is $60,000; with amounts greater than $20 million, the surety bond amount is $75,000. As initially introduced, these surety bond amounts were $50,000, $100,000 and $150,000, correspondingly. The new law became active on January 1st, 2010.