North Carolina Mortgage Servicer License

NCCOBNMLSChecked August 26, 2026

Surety bond: $150,000
Net worth: $100,000
Initial filing: $1,250
Renewal deadline: 31 December

Servicing North Carolina residential mortgage loans, and nothing else. Master servicers are included.

Any company servicing or subservicing North Carolina residential mortgage loans. A licensed North Carolina lender does not need it: notice to the Commissioner covers servicing.

Also searched as North Carolina Mortgage Loan Servicer License, NC Subservicer License. North Carolina issues the Mortgage Servicer License.

Requirements

A servicer licence authorises servicing only
It does not reach lending or brokering, and it runs one way: a lender can add servicing on notice, a servicer cannot add lending at all. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.040
Application and $1,250 fee
The same filing fee as a lender or broker, plus the actual cost of credit reports, criminal history checks and NMLS processing. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.090
Qualifying individual, without the exam
Three years of residential mortgage lending or servicing experience and primary responsibility for operations. The prelicensing education and testing requirements expressly do not apply to a servicer’s qualifying individual. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.050
Surety bond, scaled to volume
$150,000 with the application, $250,000 above $10 million of North Carolina volume, $500,000 at $50 million, on the same tiers as a lender. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.103
Net worth, escrow excluded
$100,000 on an unqualified audited statement of financial condition, expressly not counting money in escrow accounts held for others. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.104
Covered institution test, at 2,000 loans
Past 2,000 one-to-four unit loans serviced or subserviced for others at the last calendar year end, as reported in your Mortgage Call Report, Part 2 applies. Whole loans you own and loans interim-serviced before sale are excluded from the count. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.141
Capital and liquidity, by federal reference
A covered institution meeting the FHFA seller and servicer eligibility requirements for capital, net worth ratio and liquidity satisfies this section, whether or not it is approved for GSE servicing. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.143
A board and an external audit
A covered institution needs a board of directors, internal audit sized to its risk, and an annual external audit computing tangible net worth, validating MSR valuation, and verifying adequate fidelity and errors and omissions cover. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.144

Not required in North Carolina

A servicer’s qualifying individual has to pass the SAFE test.
They do not. The education and testing requirements are written to exclude a qualifying individual for a mortgage servicer, which is the one place North Carolina makes servicing easier than lending.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.050
A licensed lender needs a servicer licence to service.
Notice to the Commissioner is enough. The lender licence reaches servicing; the extra application is money and a credential for nothing.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.040
Prudential standards for servicers are federal, not state law.
In North Carolina they are both. Session Law 2025-43 wrote capital, liquidity, board, internal audit and external audit duties into Article 19B effective 1 October 2025, enforceable by the Commissioner.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.143
Escrow balances help you meet net worth.
The section excludes money in escrow accounts held for others, so a servicer holding large escrow balances gets no credit for any of it.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.104

Other costs

Item	Amount	Notes
Annual assessment, base	$2,000	For volume up to $1.5 million, plus $0.01 to $0.07 per thousand. Servicing volume counts, so a servicer is assessed on a portfolio it did not originate. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.100A
Late renewal	$250	After 31 December, and only up to 1 March. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.101

Renewal

Deadline: Expires 31 December. Renewal opens 1 November. The renewal section sets no flat company fee at all: it names one for originators and processing registrants only, because companies are funded through the annual assessment instead. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.101
Missing it: A company that misses 31 December pays a $250 late fee. Reinstatement closes on 1 March, after which the Commissioner requires you to meet the requirements for an initial licence: a new application, not a late renewal. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.101

After approval

What obliges you to file something, and how long you have.

If this changes	You owe	Deadline	Approval first
Acquisition of control	A written application for the Commissioner’s prior written consent, before the acquisition closes. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.100	Before it happens	Yes
Falling out of the FHFA standards	Written notice to the Commissioner. The same 15 days applies to giving the Commissioner a copy of any FHFA waiver, and to telling them when a waiver expires or is revoked. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.143	15 days after discovery	No
Crossing 2,000 serviced loans	The threshold is read from the Mortgage Call Report you already submit, so the Part 2 board and audit duties attach from the count itself. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.141	At calendar year end	No
Bond threshold crossed	File the higher bond for the tier your volume reached. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.103	31 May	No
Anything filed becomes inaccurate	A correcting amendment, covering filings with the Commissioner, another agency or NMLS. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.105	30 days	No
Principal office address	Report the change to the Commissioner. Servicers register no branches, so this is the only address filing. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.105	15 days after the change	No

"Not stated" means the source sets the obligation without a day count, not that the filing can wait.

Holding it

Record retention: Three years, with the storage location reported. Servicer funds that are not yours sit in a segregated escrow or trust account at a federally insured institution, poolable only if each interest can be tracked individually. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.105
Examinations: No cycle is set in the Article. For a covered institution the substitute is continuous: internal audit results, the corporate governance framework, the capital and liquidity methodology and the external audit are all held available to the Commissioner on request. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.144

Sources

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.040 The five licence types, and what each one authorises.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.050 The application, the qualifying individual and the US office.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.090 The $1,250 filing fee and how branches are registered.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.100 Prior written consent for any acquisition of control.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.100A The annual assessment: a $2,000 base plus a volume rate.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.101 The 31 December expiry, the $250 late fee and 1 March.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.103 The bond tiers, the 31 May filing date and the waiver.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.104 Minimum net worth and liquidity, per licence type.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.105 Retention, the 15-day address rule and the home-office ban.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.141 Defines a covered institution at 2,000 serviced loans.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.143 Capital and liquidity by reference to the FHFA standards.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.144 The board, the internal audit and the annual external audit.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 53-244.108 Reports of condition to the Commissioner and to NMLS.
North Carolina Commissioner of Banks The agency that issues and supervises all three licences.

Read from the sources above on August 26, 2026. Requirements change without notice, so confirm anything you are about to rely on with North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. Corrections to licensing@payna.com.

Where Payna comes in

The covered institution test fires on a number you already file: cross the threshold at year end in your Mortgage Call Report and a board, an internal audit function and an annual external audit become state law obligations. Payna tracks the count against the threshold, so the year you cross it is planned rather than discovered.

Explore

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