2. The Legislature finds and declares that the activities of residential mortgage lenders and residential mortgage brokers, previously licensed in New Jersey as mortgage bankers, correspondent mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, and secondary lenders in the secondary mortgage loan business, and mortgage loan originators, previously registered in this State as mortgage solicitors, and the origination or offering of financing for residential real property, have a direct, valuable and immediate impact upon the State’s consumers, economy, neighborhoods and communities, and the housing and real estate industry. The Legislature also finds and declares that accessibility to mortgage credit is vital to the State’s citizens.

The Legislature further finds and declares that it is essential for the protection of the citizens and the stability of the economy that reasonable standards for licensing and regulation of the business practices of residential mortgage lenders, brokers, and mortgage loan originators, formerly established under the “New Jersey Licensed Lenders Act,” sections 1 through 49 of P.L.1996, c.157 (C. 17:11C-1 et seq.), be modernized, particularly in response to new licensing and business practice standards set forth under the federal “Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008,” title V of Pub.L.110-289 (12 U.S.C. § 5101 et seq.); and that the obligations of these licensees to consumers in connection with originating or making residential mortgage loans are of such importance as to warrant updating the State’s regulation of the mortgage lending process.

Thus, the Legislature finds and declares that the intent of this act, the “New Jersey Residential Mortgage Lending Act,” is to protect consumers seeking mortgage loans and to ensure that the mortgage lending industry operates without unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent practices by establishing, in coordination with the provisions of the federal “Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008” and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry, a revised system of licensing, supervision and enforcement, and by providing the Department of Banking and Insurance and its commissioner broad administrative authority to oversee the operation of the mortgage lending industry in this State.

L.2009, c.53, s.2.