Mortgage loan originators, checked against real regulation — not a rate comparison
Anyone can put "loan officer" on a business card. Whether that person is actually licensed through the NMLS in your state, free of a RESPA kickback pattern, and actually gives you disclosures on time is a separate, checkable question almost nobody asks before signing. We check real originators against the actual licensing and conduct rules that apply, and report what we find honestly — no rate rankings, no "best lender" list, no pay-to-list badge.
What that means in practice
- No sponsored placements, ever
- Every finding checked against NMLS Consumer Access or a regulator's own record, not an originator's claim
- A failing verdict never named — only a passing one
- No paid "verified originator" badge, at any price
Start here
All explainers →Licensing
How to verify your loan officer's NMLS license
A step-by-step walkthrough of NMLS Consumer Access — free, public, and required by federal law to exist.
Kickbacks
RESPA Section 8, explained
A flat federal ban on paying for a mortgage referral — with a narrow, specific carve-out for real services at a fair price.
Disclosures
The TRID disclosure timeline, explained
Two federally mandated, specifically-timed documents — and what's supposed to happen if either one is late.
Where we are right now
The Register →The standard is published, covering both the United States and Canada, and the Register is open — 6 originators assessed so far, 0 listed — see Updates for a dated record of everything that changes from here.
One email when a new originator gets assessed
A new Library deep-dive, and a heads-up every time the Register checks another originator — that's the whole point of checking rather than assuming. No launch hype, no lead-gen blasts, unsubscribe in one click.
Recently updated
All updates →September 16, 2026
Register growth round: 2 more originators checked, first under our winners-first sourcing change (6 total)
Two more individual mortgage loan originators assessed against our published standard — the first round sourced primarily by looking for well-regarded, trade-press-recognized originators rather than by starting from a disciplinary record. Neither resolved to a clean pass or a fail: one candidate turned out to carry a real state-regulator enforcement record that couldn't be independently corroborated to our 2-source bar for a fail finding, and the other showed no adverse record but couldn't be affirmatively confirmed clean against the primary licensing source either. As always, every applicable point is reported honestly rather than rounded toward a pass — see the Register for current totals and why a failing verdict is never named.
September 16, 2026
3 new Canada Library pages: filing a complaint, a national Code of Conduct, and advertising rules by province
How to file a complaint against a Canadian mortgage broker (Ontario and Quebec require a written brokerage response first; BC and Alberta route straight to the regulator), the Mortgage Broker Regulators' Council of Canada's national Code of Conduct — endorsed by nine of ten provincial regulators in February 2021, with adoption into an enforceable framework still varying by province — and how mortgage broker advertising rules differ across Ontario, BC, and Alberta in the absence of a federal Regulation N equivalent.
September 16, 2026
4 new Library pages: Canada's last two provinces, plus two US regulatory-framework deep-dives
How Newfoundland and Labrador's 2025 Mortgage Brokerages and Brokers Act replaced a 1990 law (with new E&O insurance and trust-account requirements), why Prince Edward Island is the one Canadian province with no mortgage broker licensing regime at all, ECOA's Regulation B adverse action notice requirement (a 30-day, specific-reasons rule for a denied applicant), and HOEPA's three independent high-cost mortgage triggers, which ban balloon payments, negative amortization, and all prepayment penalties once tripped.