National Association of Loan Officers Meets With HUD To Advocate Licensing for Loan Officers A delegation from the National Association of Responsible Loan Officers (NARLO), the trade association of mortgage loan originators, visited with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to discuss loan officer issues on June 28. NARLO was represented by Ella Gurfinkel of Executive Financial Solutions Inc., Portland Ore.; Christopher Cruise, Baltimore, Md.; and Robert Skrob, NARLO executive director. The highlight of the group’s trip to Washington was its meeting with Brian Montgomery, Federal Housing Administration commissioner and assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The representatives from NARLO were joined by John L. Garvin, senior advisor; Lily Lee, deputy assistant secretary for single family housing; Phil Murray, associate deputy assistant secretary for single family housing; and Margaret Burns, director, Office of Single Family Program Development. “The members of the National Association of Responsible Loan Officers are fed up with mortgage loan fraud and the low barriers to entry into the mortgage industry,” said Skrob. “For NARLO members, minimum licensing standards are not acceptable. We must clean up our industry, and to do that we must require all entrants into our industry to undergo a minimum of 40 hours of training, testing and background checks.” The National Association of Responsible Loan Officers represents the 400,000 mortgage loan originators throughout the country that are employed by mortgage brokers. NARLO fights mortgage fraud by advocating stricter standards for loan officers and through public education.