Opposition stalls state’s new mortgage broker regulations

Kevin Rademacher

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

A package of new regulations for mortgage brokers was turned back on Wednesday by the state Legislative Commission.

Scott Bice, the state's Mortgage Lending Division commissioner, succeeded in getting approval for new regulation for mortgage bankers, which loan their own money, and escrow companies. However, opposition from a handful of home-based mortgage brokers was enough to have the entire package of broker regulations stalled.

Bice is now left to modify the package and bring the regulations back to the commission.

The failed regulations included language that would have required home-based brokers to maintain signage visible from the nearest street. That would effectively close Home Funds Mortgage, a Las Vegas business operated by Spencer Judd. The Summerlin resident said such a sign would be impossible to have approved in the community.

Judd, along with James Fitzgerald of Carson City, actively lobbied the commission to reject the new rules.

Judd said he was surprised that Bice would let such a narrow issue derail the package of regulations, many of which he said he supports.

"He didn't have to throw the baby out with the bath water," he said.

Lawmakers questioned the need for such a ban on home-based lenders since customers would know who they were talking with. Bice, however, said that is not always the case since Internet and telephone solicitations can cloud the identity of the broker.

"We've got to figure out a way to address that," Bice said.