State Regulators Advise Licensees to Renew by Nov. 30

State regulators encourage individuals and businesses that provide mortgage, money transmission, debt collection and consumer financial services to renew their licenses in Nationwide Multistate Licensing System by November 30 to avoid processing delays.

“We’re encouraging licensees to submit early this year because of the operational challenges that businesses and states are facing due to the pandemic,” said Kelly O’Sullivan, chair of the NMLS Policy Committee and deputy commissioner of the Montana Division of Banking and Financial Institutions. “We want to make sure that licensees renew on time so that individuals and businesses can operate uninterrupted in the new year.”

States are also increasing their use of NMLS features that free-up agency resources to focus on complex cases that require additional review, including more electronic documentation collection in NMLS.

More than 180,000 MLOs and companies are licensed to conduct business, accounting for more than 618,700 state licenses to be renewed. MLOs must also have completed annual continuing education requirements.

Renewals in most states run November 1 to December 31.

“Licensees submitting renewal requests in November gives states enough time to process the renewal and individuals the opportunity to resolve any issues that may arise. Early renewal applications are far more likely to be approved in time to keep doing business on January 1,” O’Sullivan said.

NMLS offers free, online courses and state-specific checklists to guide licensees through the process by going to www.nmls.org and clicking the green Annual Renewal button.

Federally registered MLOs and institutions must also renew their registrations via NMLS by December 31. More information for federal registrants is available on the NMLS Federal Registry Resources page.