Industry Letter

Information on 2Q Assessments

May 4, 2005

Dear Mortgage Banker:

In rolling out the February bills, the first ever received by your industry, we promised that you would have an opportunity to comment on the method we used to calculate your bills. We heard volumes from you, the brokers and bankers that we license, regulate and supervise. We have listened to your issues and where we have been able to make changes, they are changes that we believe make the billing structure fairer.

As before, the bill is made up of a supervisory component and a regulatory component. The most significant change is that the financial basis to calculate the regulatory component will be based on the gross amount of income for both bankers and brokers. The other change is in the buckets established for each industry, which are used to calculate the supervisory component. Bankers are delineated in four categories as follows:

The supervisory component for brokers was based on two categories, and is now split three ways:

I am well aware that the basic unhappiness with being charged for the cost of your regulation and supervision persists – I am also certain that you know that it is a necessary burden if we are to continue to do our job as your supervisor and regulator as mandated by State Banking Law. We have already made the internal changes that were promised – including assigning more senior and experienced examiners to your businesses, increasing the frequency of exams and focusing more on safety and soundness issues. I have also directed my staff to review the budget and recommend areas for savings.

I am hopeful that when all is said and done, you will find our increased focus on the mortgage broker and banking industry to be a boon for your business and overall credibility.

Sincerely,

Diana L. Taylor
Superintendent