West Virginia Code 31-17-2 – License required for lender and broker originator; exemptions
(a) A person may not engage in this state in the business of lender or broker unless and until he or she first obtains a license to do so from the commissioner, which license remains unexpired, unsuspended and unrevoked, and no foreign corporation may engage in business in this state unless it is registered with the Secretary of State to transact business in this state.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 31-17-2
- Additional charges: means every type of charge arising out of the making or acceptance of a primary or subordinate mortgage loan, except finance charges, including, but not limited to, official fees and taxes, reasonable closing costs and certain documentary charges and insurance premiums and other charges which definition is to be read in conjunction with and permitted by section one hundred nine, article three, chapter . See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- Broker: means any person acting in the regular course of business who, for a fee or commission or other consideration, negotiates or arranges, or who offers to negotiate or arrange, or originates or assigns a primary or subordinate mortgage loan between a lender and a borrower. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of this state. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- 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.
- Lender: means any person who makes or offers to make or accepts or offers to accept or purchases or services any primary or subordinate mortgage loan in the regular course of business. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- Licensee: means any person duly licensed by the commissioner under the provisions of this article or article seventeen-a of this chapter as a lender, broker or mortgage loan originator. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- 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
- Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
- Person: means an individual, partnership, association, trust, corporation or any other legal entity, or any combination thereof. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. Source: FDIC
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Subordinate mortgage loan: means any loan primarily for personal, family or household use that is secured by a mortgage, deed of trust or other equivalent consensual security interest on a dwelling as defined in Section 103(w) of the Truth in Lending Act or residential real estate upon which is constructed or intended to be constructed a dwelling and is subject to the lien of one or more prior recorded mortgages or deeds of trust. See West Virginia Code 31-17-1
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(b) All mortgage loan originators, as that term is defined by section two, article seventeen-a of this chapter, shall obtain a mortgage loan originator license pursuant to said article.
(c) Brokerage fees, additional charges and finance charges imposed by licensed mortgage brokers, lenders and loan originators are exempt from the tax imposed by article fifteen, chapter eleven of this code beginning on January 1, 2004.
(d) The provisions of this article do not apply to loans made by the following:
(1) Federally insured depository institutions;
(2) Regulated consumer lender licensees;
(3) Insurance companies;
(4) Any agency or instrumentality of this state, federal, county or municipal government or on behalf of the agency or instrumentality;
(5) By a nonprofit community development organization making mortgage loans to promote home ownership or improvements for the disadvantaged which loans are subject to federal, state, county or municipal government supervision and oversight; or
(6) Habitat for Humanity International, Inc., and its affiliates providing low-income housing within this state. Loans made subject to this exemption may be assigned, transferred, sold or otherwise securitized to any person and shall remain exempt from the provisions of this article, except as to reporting requirements in the discretion of the commissioner where the person is a licensee under this article. Nothing herein shall prohibit a broker licensed under this article from acting as broker of an exempt loan and receiving compensation as permitted under the provisions of this article.
(e) The provisions of this article do not apply to loans brokered by a federally insured depository institution.
(f) A person or entity designated in subsection (d) of this section may take assignments of a primary or subordinate mortgage loan from a licensed lender and the assignments of said loans that they themselves could have lawfully made as exempt from the provisions of this article under this section do not make that person or entity subject to the licensing, bonding, reporting or other provisions of this article except as the defense or claim would be preserved pursuant to section one hundred two, article two, chapter forty-six-a of this code.
(g) The placement or sale for securitization of a primary or subordinate mortgage loan into a secondary market by a licensee may not subject the warehouser or final securitization holder or trustee to the provisions of this article: Provided, That the warehouser, final securitization holder or trustee under an arrangement is either a licensee or person or entity entitled to make exempt loans of that type under this section, or the loan is held with right of recourse to a licensee.