Legislature overhauls mortgage regulation

Kevin Rademacher

Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

A bill restructuring the regulatory environment of Nevada's mortgage lending and investment industry won approval in the waning moments of the 72nd Legislature on Monday.

Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, has been pushing for mortgage reform since the collapse of Harley Harmon's infamous Las Vegas mortgage company in the late 1990s.

"It just squeaked by," Goldwater said. "But we've got a really good plan here."

The bill, he said, gained momentum after Clark County District Court Judge Sally Loehrer scolded the Financial Institutions Division, which currently oversees mortgage companies, for failing to investigate developer Howard Bulloch's complaints against Vestin Mortgage Co.

After a series of talks with the governor's office following the scolding, Assembly Bill 490 was crafted to created the Division of Mortgage Lending to regulate the industry. The new division will now be taken out of the Financial Institutions Division, where Goldwater said the industry didn't receive the attention it deserved.

The bill, which required a two-third's majority, passed the Assembly with a 38-2 vote and cleared the Senate 21-0. The new rules must now be signed into law by Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The changes have the support of the Department of Business and Industry, which will oversee the FID and the new mortgage division.

"The director (Sydney Wickliffe) feels it's a necessary and critical step to create a new agency, due to the complexity and expansiveness of the mortgage industry," said Amanda Getzoff, spokeswoman for the Department of Business and Industry.