California

State rules

Regulator

California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Filings run through NMLS and state portal. DFPI, licensees and industries

Expiry

Neither company licence expires: § 50123(a) says a residential mortgage lender licence "shall remain in effect until suspended, surrendered, or revoked", and § 22700(a) says the same of finance lender, broker and program administrator licences, "shall remain in effect until they are surrendered, revoked, or suspended". The distinction is deliberate: § 22700(b), the next subsection, makes MLO licences renewable annually. Cal. Fin. Code § 22700

Annual reporting

CRMLA is due 1 March, under oath, in the commissioner’s prescribed form, with audited financials within 105 days of fiscal year end. CFL is due 15 March, unaudited and free to file; a report missing its signed verification page counts as never filed, and failing to file carries penalties up to $25,000 in aggregate. Cal. Fin. Code § 50307

In-state office

No in-state office in either regime. California requires a designated commissioner-correspondence email address, registered through DFPI’s self-service portal, plus the California books-and-records location identified on the application. Cal. Fin. Code § 50000 et seq.

Branches

CRMLA licenses branch offices and requires a qualifying individual who supervises and periodically reviews branch managers and inspects each office to confirm written procedures are followed; with no branches, that person supervises the originators directly. Cal. Fin. Code § 50000 et seq.

Change of control

The control-person threshold is 10 percent direct or indirect; a natural person indirectly owning 25 percent or more must file in their own right as an indirect owner, with fingerprints required regardless of nationality or residence. Cal. Fin. Code § 50000 et seq.

Mortgage call report

Filed through NMLS on the national quarterly and annual cycle; California sets no deadline of its own. The duty tracks the activity, not the licence: a licensee not doing residential mortgage lending may report zeros or ignore the requests, and the resulting deficiencies stay off NMLS public access without affecting licence status. Cal. Fin. Code § 50000 et seq.