ATTENTION CA Residential Mortgage Lenders Licensed by CA Dept of Corporations: You May Want the Prior Version of the CA Fair Lending Notice Form

Since publishing notice of our updated California Fair Lending Notice form in our June, 2005 issue of The Compliance Wizard, a customer who is licensed by the California Department of Corporations ("DOC") under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act contacted our Compliance Department to advise that the DOC takes exception to listing the DOC, the California Department of Real Estate, and Department of Financial Institutions all on one form. As indicated in our June issue, the updated California Fair Lending Notice, which was implemented into all loan-closing packages on July 1, 2005, does list the names and addresses of all of the foregoing agencies on the form, requiring the DocMagic user to mark the box next to the agency by which the DocMagic user is licensed.

There is nothing in either the California Code of Regulations or California statutes that prohibits placing the foregoing three agencies' names on one form and requiring the check box next to the agency's name to be appropriately marked. However, in response to information given by our customer, the Legal Department followed up with the DOC and found out the following. Depending on whether a lender is licensed by the DOC as a California Finance Lender ("CFL") or California Residential Mortgage Lender ("CRML"), the division of the DOC that audits CFLs and the division that audits CRMLs each holds a different opinion on whether it is acceptable to place more than one agency's name and address on the California Fair Lending Notice.

The division of the DOC that audits CFLs has indicated that they will not take exception to our form, as long as the correct agency is selected, while the division that audits CRMLs has indicated that they would take exception to our form. Thus, those CRMLs who would like to revert to our prior version of the California Fair Lending Notice that lists only the DOC's name and address, please contact Document Systems, Inc.'s Customer Service Department, at (800) 649-1362, and request that form "CAFLNC.MSC" replace form "CAFLNB.MSC."

For more information, contact our Customer Service Department at (800) 649-1362.

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