Mortgage Master, a high-profile, fast-growing Walpole company, will have to pay $585,000 to the Division of Banks for a host of regulatory violations, one of the highest fines for a local mortgage company in recent history.
Mortgage Master got hit for a number of missteps, and now must pay $495,000 for hiring originators who were not properly licensed and $60,000 for operating mortgage operations from unlicensed locations. The company was also ordered to pay $25,000 for not complying with rules "governing the conduct" of mortgage professionals, relating to failures to properly report lending information required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. An extra $5,000 is due because the company failed to get approval to do reverse mortgages.
The fines come as part of a settlement agreement between the company and regulators, made public this week. In addition, Connecticut also fined Mortgage Master for similar violations, charging the company $221,000 in an agreement dated February 23. In that document, Connecticut’s Department of Banking found Mortgage Master didn’t properly license 71 originators and 20 locations.
Paul Anastos, president of the company, did not return messages relating to the action.
Mortgage Master was the top-selling mortgage company for all residential categories in 2009, and the company’s mortgage volume had grown by more than 100 percent in dollar volume from 2008 to 2009, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
After the height of the economic crisis put many mortgage companies out of business, Mortgage Master and other companies worked to step into the competitive void, growing their business in a newly empty field.
In May 2009, CEO Leif Thomsen told Banker & Tradesman he added more than 100 employees since the start of that year, bringing his company to 400 people at the time. As of February, Thomsen said he was still in talks with potential hires.
In addition to paying fines, the Division of Banks’ order included directives that Mortgage Master establish proper policies for fees, loan documentation, licensing and other aspects of the business, and that it will report its progress in these areas to the division on a regular basis.
