Course Objectives

This course is designed to strengthen mortgage loan originators' ability to originate loans responsibly in New York's highly regulated, high-risk mortgage environment. Participants will connect day-to-day origination decisions to the laws, regulations, and operational standards that New York expects licensed professionals to follow, with an emphasis on practical compliance — what to do, what to avoid, and how to stay defensible — through real-world examples, checklists, and case studies.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify fair lending behaviors that create disparate treatment risk during origination — including discouragement, inconsistent options, and weak documentation — and apply practical tools to support a consistent, defensible borrower experience.
• Recognize modern mortgage fraud schemes commonly encountered in New York transactions, including occupancy fraud, income and employment manipulation, and straw buyer arrangements, and distinguish between fraud for property and fraud for profit.
• Explain New York's mortgage fraud law, sentencing structure, and licensing consequences under SAFE Act standards, and describe the escalation practices that protect MLOs when red flags arise.
• Identify required conduct standards and prohibited acts under New York law, including compliance obligations related to marketing, social media, disclosures, recordkeeping, and complaint handling.
• Describe NYDFS enforcement authority and explain how conduct issues commonly become complaints or exam findings.