Texas Adopts New Mortgage Originator Licensing Regulations for Military Members, Veterans, and Military Spouses

On November 7, 2019, the Texas Finance Commission and the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending adopted new regulations which provide certain benefits to military members, veterans, and military spouses with respect to residential mortgage loan originator licenses.

Among other things, the two new regulations (available here and here), provide that:

• such individuals are exempt from certain fees or penalties for failing to timely renew their licenses, if the delay was due to their military service;
• such individuals are subject to expedited consideration when they apply for a new license if they hold a license from another state or if they previously held a Texas license within the preceding 5 years;
• such individuals are allowed to use verified military service, training, or education toward their licensing requirements, other than an examination requirement; and
• a military spouse who has a license from another state is allowed to work in Texas as a mortgage originator without obtaining a Texas license for the period in which the military spouse’s military member spouse is stationed at a military base in Texas, but not to exceed 3 years (provided certain notification requirements are met).