Do the licensing requirements of the SAFE Act apply to individuals who perform loan modifications for loan servicers that modify existing loans?
HUD recognizes that servicers are increasingly taking applications for and negotiating the terms of loan modifications that substantially alter the terms of existing mortgage loans. These types of loan servicing activities are often very different from what industry and the public viewed as typical loan servicing activities only a few years ago. Today’s loan modifications may include an increase or decrease in the interest rate, a change to the type of interest rate (e.g. fixed rate versus adjustable rate), an extension of the loan term, an increase or a write-down of the principal, the addition of collateral, changes to provisions for prepayment penalties and balloon payments, and even a change in the parties to the loan through assumption or the addition of a cosigner. The activities of a loan servicer that result in modification of the terms of a residential mortgage loan can be virtually indistinguishable from the performance of a refinancing, which is unambiguously covered by the
