Mortgage Certification

Candidates for the CMME designation must provide evidence of the following:

• Five years as an Examiner-in-Charge or higher, in a position where the ability to manage complex examinations with a significant amount of documentation, large numbers of internal and external staff members, and high-level communication skills are critical to mission success.
• Management of five single-state examinations.
• Participation in at least two multistate examinations, one as EIC/SPOC.
• Use of advanced compliance software in at least two examinations is preferred. If this requirement cannot be met at the time of application, demonstrated use and/or completion of the ComplianceEase training module must be submitted before recertification will be granted at the end of the three-year term of certification.
• Satisfactory completion of 36 hours of basic + 56 hours of advanced instructor-led, classroom mortgage examination and/or fraud training, such as:
  • FRB's Real Estate Lending Examination Techniques (RELET) School
  • CFPB's Fair Lending Examination Techniques Course
  • FFIEC's Fundamentals of Fraud Workshop
• Attestation of successful job performance and mastery of appropriate job-related skills by a supervisor within the candidate's organization. All attestations shall be considered final once signed. Attestation as to a candidate's skill will be supported by a defined response form that outlines the necessary and appropriate skills. A high degree of reliance is placed on the attestation forms provided by the applicant’s supervisor when granting certification. For that reason, the individual signing the form should be familiar with the applicant’s experience, performance, and skills/abilities, and should be confident that the applicant meets all the requirements as noted on the form.

The attestation form addresses the following categories:

TECHNICAL - Provides effective leadership and organization to the examination process:

• Effectively supervises personnel to ensure adherence to all procedures and policies
• Monitors senior examination personnel to ensure examination mission, goals, and responsibilities are being met
• Effectively organizes and delegates assignments
• Effectively supervises the entire examination process, including pre-examination scoping and planning, and flow of work and documents during the examination

CONCEPTUAL - Provides effective supervision of the overall activities of mortgage providers in a multistate setting:

• Effectively determines a multistate mortgage provider’s condition from completed reports of examination
• Effectively administers appropriate departmental response from examination findings and follow-up on correction of problems and violations

LEGAL/COMPLIANCE - Effectively demonstrates knowledge of policies, procedures, laws, rules and regulations and participates in development of amendments to laws or new legislation:

• Effectively demonstrates knowledge of applicable federal and home state laws
• Effectively demonstrates knowledge of policies, procedures, rules and regulations
• Effectively review violations and approves corrective action or enforcement powers

HUMAN RELATIONS - Recognizing the increased scope and complexity of multistate mortgage examinations, applicant must provide interpersonal and communication skills to be delivered at a higher level, including:

• Effectively provides for personnel management in the areas of budgeting, recruiting, training, team-building, negotiation, motivation, coaching and counseling, performance evaluation, and disciplinary actions
• Effectively and clearly communicates orally and in writing with people and organizations internal and external to the department, including examiners in other states' agencies and the Multistate Mortgage Committee
• Effectively conducts meetings with management, owners and the boards of directors of multistate mortgage providers
• Effectively coordinates multistate mortgage examination planning, execution and regulatory response with other state and federal supervisory or law enforcement authorities

RECERTIFICATION

Every three years, certified examiners are required to submit 63 continuing education hours (CEHs) in order to renew a CMME certification. If an examiner exceeds this requirement, up to 14 CEHs may be carried over into the new three-year term. Continuing education should be selected with the goal of maintaining, improving, or expanding the examiner's knowledge, skills, and abilities. NOTE: If use of and/or training in the use of compliance software cannot be demonstrated at the time of application, it must be completed before recertification will be granted at the end of the three-year term.