The Division of Financial Institutions, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (“DFI”), and financial regulatory agencies from 42 other states reached settlements with 441 mortgage loan originators nationwide, including 15 with Hawaii licenses, who deceptively claimed to have completed annual continuing education and pre-education requirements as required under state and federal law.
“The DFI takes these violations seriously as these education requirements provide important information about Hawaii’s mortgage laws,” says Financial Institutions Commissioner Iris Ikeda. “Hawaii actively joined the investigation of these allegations and participated in drafting the settlement agreements for the mortgage loan originators,” continues Commissioner Ikeda. “We want to assure consumers who used these mortgage loan originators that their mortgages are valid and in force, as the violations did not affect the integrity of the mortgages,” says Commissioner Ikeda.
Through the settlements, the mortgage loan originators agreed to surrender their licenses for a period of three months, pay a fine of $1,000 for each state in which he or she holds a license and take continuing education beyond Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) requirements.
Congress enacted the SAFE Act to enhance consumer protection and reduce fraud through minimum standards for the licensing and registration of state-licensed mortgage loan originators. The law calls on the states to implement and enforce these standards, and every state has enacted its own version of the SAFE Act that requires mortgage loan originators to have at least 20 hours of pre-licensing education and an annual eight hours of continuing education.
Danny Yen, owner of Carlsbad, California-based course provider Real Estate Educational Services, is facing administrative enforcement actions in at least three states for both providing false certificates and taking courses on behalf of mortgage loan originators through other education providers in violation of the SAFE Act.
The irregular education activity was discovered through a gesture-driven authentication tool called BioSig-ID, which is used to monitor all online courses approved under the SAFE Act mandate.
