Arizona Laws 6-983. Required accounting practices and records; escrow of monies; disclosure
A. A commercial mortgage banker shall keep and maintain at all times correct and complete records as prescribed by the deputy director that will enable the deputy director to determine whether the licensee is complying with this article. A commercial mortgage banker shall make records available to the deputy director in this state not more than three business days after demand and shall provide for the acceptance of collect calls or provide a toll-free telephone number to borrowers to obtain information from the records if the licensed place of business in this state cannot readily provide the information requested by the borrowers. A commercial mortgage banker shall maintain original documents or clearly legible copies of all commercial mortgage loan transactions for at least two years after the date of the commercial mortgage loan closing.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 6-983
- Appraisal: A determination of property value.
- Bank: means a corporation that holds a banking permit issued pursuant to chapter 2 of this title. See Arizona Laws 6-101
- Commercial mortgage banker: means a person who engages in the following:
(a) Originating commercial mortgage loans. See Arizona Laws 6-971
- Commercial mortgage loan: means a loan that is directly or indirectly secured by a mortgage or deed of trust or any lien interest on commercial property and created with the consent of the owner of the commercial property. See Arizona Laws 6-971
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Deputy director: means the deputy director of the financial institutions division of the department. See Arizona Laws 6-101
- Enterprise: means any person under the jurisdiction of the department other than a financial institution. See Arizona Laws 6-101
- Financial institution: means banks, trust companies, savings and loan associations, credit unions, consumer lenders, international banking facilities and financial institution holding companies under the jurisdiction of the department. See Arizona Laws 6-101
- Generally accepted accounting principles: means United States generally accepted accounting principles issued by the financial accounting standards board or the international financial reporting standards issued by the international accounting standards board. See Arizona Laws 6-971
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Licensee: means a person who is licensed under this article. See Arizona Laws 6-971
- Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
- Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. Source: OCC
- Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
- Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
- Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. Source: OCC
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
B. A commercial mortgage banker shall observe generally accepted accounting principles and practices.
C. If a commercial mortgage banker requires an advance or fee to be paid in connection with an application for a commercial mortgage loan, there shall be a written agreement. The parties shall sign the written agreement, and the agreement shall contain terms pertaining to the payment of the fee or disposition of the advance or fee, whether the loan is finally consummated or not, and a term for which the agreement is to remain in force before return of the advance or fee for nonperformance can be required. The licensee shall immediately deposit advances or fees in a trust account in a bank, savings bank or savings and loan association that is fully insured by the federal deposit insurance corporation or any successor agency, and the advances or fees shall not be commingled with other monies. The trust account shall designate the licensee as trustee and shall provide for withdrawing the monies without previous notice. Withdrawals shall only be disbursed according to the terms of the agreement. A licensee who receives advances or fees shall preserve and on request make available to the deputy director all deposits, withdrawal receipts and statements of account rendered by the bank, savings bank or savings and loan association. The licensee shall further preserve all agreements between the parties involved in the transaction and all contracts, agreements and instructions to or with the depository and shall keep an accurate accounting of each separate bank account in which the trust monies have been deposited. If the loan is declined by or on behalf of the lender or canceled by the applicant, all documents provided by or at the expense of the applicant, including any appraisal, are the property of the applicant. At the applicant’s discretion, the documents shall be returned or transferred to any designated financial institution or enterprise without additional consideration except for fees for which the applicant has previously contracted, if the document is not prohibited by law from being transferred or returned.
D. If periodic payments are to be collected from the mortgagor to provide for payments by the mortgagee of taxes, assessments, insurance premiums, ground rents or other current charges against the real estate security, the estimated payment amount stated to the mortgagor by the commercial mortgage banker shall be such that the total of these payments collected for each category during the tax or other period will approximate the actual tax or other payment when due. The licensee shall annually account to the borrower for all such periodic payments of taxes, assessments, insurance premiums, ground rents and other current charges and, to the extent monies have been collected for payment, shall pay them promptly.