Print This Page

Mortgage Advertising Enforcement

The Department of Financial Institutions is taking a careful look at mortgage advertising. The existing statutes and rules related to advertising provide a clear bright line between what is acceptable and what is not. Many mortgage advertisements appear to fall on the wrong side of the line.

In reviewing complaints about advertising the DFI follows this general approach:

1. When a complaint is received an enforcement unit attorney contacts the advertiser requesting background information on the advertisement.
2. DFI requests substantiation of the availability of the advertised rate or other claims made in the advertisement.
3. The enforcement unit attorney notifies the advertiser of disclosure or other violations if any are discovered.
4. The enforcement staff initiates the appropriate enforcement actions as called for in the Mortgage Broker Practices Act or Consumer Loan Act.

The department is also developing a mortgage advertising database. In it we plan to build a comprehensive overview of mortgage advertising statewide. We plan to capture the types of violations found, their severity, and the results of investigations into and cases based on deceptive advertising. Ultimately the database will help point to problem advertisers and patterns of deceptive advertising. DFI will share the information we develop with the mortgage industry in an effort to reduce the frequency and severity of deceptive and anti-competitive advertising.

Contact the Consumer Services Enforcement Unit if you have information about or questions about mortgage advertising.

<< Back to Newsletter Home