The $110 fee for the SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator Test, National Component with Uniform State Content is the figure everybody quotes, and it is one line of several. The Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) charges its own processing fees on top, the background check and the credit report are charged separately again, and the state agency’s application and license fees sit outside all of it. On a single-state application the set-up fee, the background check and the credit report come to $86.25 on the figures below, and what the state adds is not a figure anybody can quote nationally, because it differs from state to state.
The figures below are the ones NMLS publishes on its fee pages. NMLS says they are set and reviewed every year by the State Regulatory Registry (SRR) board of managers, so each one is that year’s figure and not a permanent one.
The test fee, once per attempt
$110, paid inside NMLS when the test enrollment window is created. Test centers take no payment at the door, and the fee is neither refundable nor transferable to another window (MLO Testing Handbook, 2.5 Test Fees). NMLS lists the same $110 on its processing fee page under testing, as the national component fee.
A retake is a fresh enrollment at the same price, because each attempt needs its own window (MLO Testing Handbook, 10.1 Retaking a Failed Test / Waiting Period). A window that closed because an appointment was missed or changed too late has to be bought again as well, and the original fee is not returned (MLO Testing Handbook, 4.1 Appointment Changes). Two failures and one missed appointment put a candidate at four enrollments before a pass, which is $440 of test fees and no licensing fee paid yet. How a window is bought, and what closes one, is in the booking guide.
What NMLS charges to process the application
| NMLS processing fee, individual | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Initial set-up, Form MU4 | $35 | Each new or transitioned license, per agency per license |
| Annual processing | $35 | Each renewal, per agency per license |
| Criminal background check | $36.25 | Each new application or registration request |
| Card packet, for print card capture | $10 | Where prints are taken on a card rather than by livescan |
| Credit report | $15 | Each new application, unless NMLS already holds one under 30 days old |
The set-up and annual fees are per agency and per license, and that phrase decides the total for anyone licensing in more than one state. A second state is a second $35 to apply and a second $35 every renewal. NMLS says on the same page that its fees are generally structured that way on purpose, so that holding more licenses costs more and moving between employers costs more.
The background check fee is $36.25 whether the prints are captured by livescan or on a print card, and the card route adds a $10 card packet fee. It is charged once per filing however many licenses that filing asks for. The credit report is $15 on the same single-charge basis, and it is charged again at a new application when NMLS is not already holding a report less than 30 days old.
Both of those exist because the law asks for them. Regulation H (12 CFR Part 1008) requires a state to find that an applicant has submitted fingerprints for a state and national criminal history check and has authorized an independent credit report (12 CFR ss. 1008.105(g) and 1008.105(h)), and the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) says the same at 12 USC s. 5104(a). The fees are what NMLS charges to run them.
Sponsorship, and who pays it
An individual filing carries no sponsorship fee: the individual row of the NMLS fee table reads n/a. The $35 change of sponsorship fee sits in the company row of that table. NMLS charges it to the company each time that company asks to sponsor a loan originator’s license, again per agency and per license. A loan originator changing employers therefore generates a fee, and it is the new employer’s fee rather than the originator’s.
The surcharge on the card
NMLS takes Visa, Mastercard and ACH. Effective October 21, 2013, every credit card transaction carries a 2.5 percent service fee, billed as its own line on the card statement. A payment by ACH carries no such fee. A single-state first application runs to $86.25 of NMLS fees on the figures above, the set-up, the background check and the credit report, and paying that by card adds about $2.16. The gap grows with the total, so a multi-state filing pays more of it.
Renewal, every year
The NMLS annual renewal overview puts the renewal window between November 1 and December 31 each year. The individual fees the NMLS renewal fees page lists are $35 of processing, $36.25 for the criminal background check and $15 for the credit report, with state-specific fees on top that vary by agency and may be collected inside NMLS or outside it.
Read those three against the processing fee page before budgeting for them. That page charges the background check at each new application for licensing and the credit report at each new application for licensure, and a renewal is not on its face a new application. Neither page says which of the two governs a renewal year. NMLS tells licensees to consult their own state’s renewal checklist, and on this question that is where the answer is.
What the state charges
State application fees, license fees, surety bond costs and any state-specific requirement are set by the state agency. NMLS publishes them in one spreadsheet, the License Requirements and Fees Chart, which covers every NMLS license. The separate State Licensing Checklist Compiler is what exports a checklist for one agency and one license type. The chart’s own note says the NMLS processing fees for testing, education credit banking, the background check and the credit report are not included on it, so the chart and the table above cover different halves of the cost.
A single national number therefore does not exist. Two applicants in different states, one of them licensing in three, pay legitimately different amounts.
What does stay the same is the structure: one test fee per attempt, a set of NMLS processing fees per agency and per license, one background check and one credit report per filing, and the state’s own charges on top. Pricing your own case means opening the License Requirements and Fees Chart for your state and adding the table above to it.
The steps those fees pay for run from the MU4 through sponsorship to renewal.
Sources
- SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act, 12 USC s. 5104(a), US Code release point 119-102
- Regulation H, 12 CFR s. 1008.105, paragraphs (g) and (h)
- NMLS Processing Fees
- NMLS Annual Renewal Fees
- Licensing Checklists, Requirements, and Fees
- MLO Testing Handbook, 2.0 Test Enrollment Procedures, ss. 2.5 and 2.6
- MLO Testing Handbook, 4.0 Appointment Cancellation and Rescheduling, s. 4.1
- NMLS Annual Renewal Overview for Individuals
- MLO Testing Handbook, 10.0 Retaking a Failed Test / Waiting Period, s. 10.1
- Every NMLS and handbook page above is a restricted document: named, linked and paraphrased here, never quoted