Please take action today to urge your representatives in Annapolis to back bills supported by the Maryland Mortgage Bankers and Brokers Association (MMBBA) and the national MBA. The bills (HB-1516/SB-1026), which have also been endorsed by the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation (OFR), would address OFR’s January 10, 2025 guidance and emergency regulations to facilitate compliance with the state Appellate Court’s ruling in the case of the Estate of Brown v. Ward. The new policy requires immediate licensing of mortgage trusts and has consequently raised urgent issues for entities involved in the secondary mortgage market. The Maryland Secondary Market Stability Act of 2025 would create the necessary exemptions to state law and also create a one-year study commission to review the issue and make recommendations to the Legislature. 

The MMBBA and national MBA have also led a broad industry coalition that has submitted a letter to OFR strongly encouraging OFR to rescind its guidance and regulations.

Go deeper: The Brown v. Ward case was limited to matters regarding an assignee of a home equity line of credit and whether the assignee needed a license to have the legal authority to bring a foreclosure action. The Court agreed that a license was required, but the OFR unnecessarily expanded the regulation to cover purchasers/assignees of closed-end credit such as passive trusts of residential mortgage loans, which under the order would also need to be licensed. The requirement became effective January 10, 2025, but OFR initially delayed enforcement until April 10, 2025. Following the introduction of the companion bills, HB-1516 and SB-1026, OFR further delayed the compliance date to July 6, 2025, or 90 days following the end of the 2025 Maryland legislative session.

Why it matters: Last fall, MMBBA and MBA strongly urged the OFR not to expand its rules beyond the court’s decision and warned of the harmful and immediate consequences to the Maryland mortgage market and consumers. In recent weeks, the industry’s predictions of detrimental impact to Maryland have proven prescient, with several purchasers of Maryland loans announcing they will either raise costs associated with those loans – or cease their purchases of similar loans altogether.