HR 5013 — Affordable Homeownership Access Act

(a) In general Subject to the existence of a licensing or registration regime, as the case may be, an individual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first— (1) obtaining, and maintaining annually— (A) a registration as a registered loan originator; or (B) a license and registration as a State-licensed loan originator; and (2) obtaining a unique identifier. (b) Loan processors and underwriters (1) Supervised loan processors and underwriters A loan processor or underwriter who does not represent to the public, through advertising or other means of communicating or providing information (including the use of business cards, stationery, brochures, signs, rate lists, or other promotional items), that such individual can or will perform any of the activities of a loan originator shall not be required to be a State-licensed loan originator. (2) Independent contractors An independent contractor may not engage in residential mortgage loan origination activities as a loan processor or underwriter unless such independent contractor is a State-licensed loan originator.

(a) The definitions and rules of construction set forth in this section are applicable for the purposes of this subchapter. (b) Bureau.— The term “Bureau” means the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. (c) The term “Board” refers to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (d) The term “organization” means a corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, trust, estate, partnership, cooperative, or association. (e) The term “person” means a natural person or an organization. (f) The term “credit” means the right granted by a creditor to a debtor to defer payment of debt or to incur debt and defer its payment. (g) The term “creditor” refers only to a person who both (1) regularly extends, whether in connection with loans, sales of property or services, or otherwise, consumer credit which is payable by agreement in more than four installments or for which the payment of a finance charge is or may be required, and (2) is the person to whom the debt arising from the consumer credit transaction is initially payable on the face of the evidence of indebtedness or, if there is no such evidence of indebtedness, by agreement. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, in the case of an open-end credit plan involving a credit card, the card issuer and any person who honors the credit card and offers a discount which is a finance charge are creditors. For the purpose of the requirements imposed under part D of this subchapter and sections 1637(a)(5), 1637(a)(6), 1637(a)(7), 1637(b)(1), 1637(b)(2), 1637(b)(3), 1637(b)(8), and 1637(b)(10) of this title, the term “creditor” shall also include card issuers whether or not the amount due is payable by agreement in more than four installments or the payment of a finance charge is or may be required, and the Bureau shall, by regulation, apply these requirements to such card issuers, to the extent appropriate, even though the requirements are by their terms applicable only to creditors offering open-end credit plans. Any person who originates 2 or more mortgages referred to in subsection (aa) in any 12-month period or any person who originates 1 or more such mortgages through a mortgage broker shall be considered to be a creditor for purposes of this subchapter. The term “creditor” includes a private educational lender (as that term is defined in section 1650 of this title) for purposes of this subchapter. (h) The term “credit sale” refers to any sale in which the seller is a creditor. The term includes any contract in the form of a bailment or lease if the bailee or lessee contracts to pay as compensation for use a sum substantially equivalent to or in excess of the aggregate value of the property and services involved and it is agreed that the bailee or lessee will become, or for no other or a nominal consideration has the option to become, the owner of the property upon full compliance with his obligations under the contract. (i) The adjective “consumer”, used with reference to a credit transaction, characterizes the transaction as one in which the party to whom credit is offered or extended is a natural person, and the money, property, or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. (j) The terms “open end credit plan” and “open end consumer credit plan” mean a plan under which the creditor reasonably contemplates repeated transactions, which prescribes the terms of such transactions, and which provides for a finance charge which may be computed from time to time on the outstanding unpaid balance. A credit plan or open end consumer credit plan which is an open end credit plan or open end consumer credit plan within the meaning of the preceding sentence is an open end credit plan or open end consumer credit plan even if credit information is verified from time to time. (k) The term “adequate notice,” as used in section 1643 of this title, means a printed notice to a cardholder which sets forth the pe...