SAFE Act Compliance Audits

A SAFE Act audit (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act) tests your credit union’s compliance against the regulations. The SAFE Act applies to all financial institutions that offer real estate secured loans to consumers, such as first mortgage loans, second mortgages, home equity loans, and land loans. A SAFE Act audit is required annually by law.

Internal Policies and Procedures

One significant part of a SAFE Act audit is the review of internal policies and procedures. Our SAFE Act compliance auditors look at your policies and procedures documentation to ensure that your internal processes are adequate to comply with regulations.

This examination also considers the size and complexity of the credit union’s mortgage lending activity, and the exam results may offer guidance for changes to internal controls to be more appropriate with the scope of the credit union’s mortgage lending.

Mortgage Loan Originator Activities

Our auditors also review your mortgage loan originators’ personal information and the training that was provided to them, as well as timely registrations and timely registration updates. A few things we look for:

- - - - Are those employees that are defined as “mortgage loan originator” (MLO) registered before they perform any MLO duties?
      - Does the financial institution provide SAFE Act training to mortgage lending staff before registration?
      - When it’s time to renew, does the existing staff review the requirements before renewal?

SAFE Act Audit Frequency

The SAFE Act requirements specifically state that a review is to be completed at least annually. This is a minimum frequency.

Testing more frequently may be considered if your credit union has a frequent or large personnel turnover or if your CU has implemented new delivery methods such as newly implemented online mortgage loan applications or online information gathering.