§ 592-a. Application process to register as a mortgage broker. 1. Upon
the filing of an application for registration, if the superintendent
shall find that the financial responsibility, experience, character, and
general fitness of the applicant, and of the members thereof if the
applicant is a co-partnership or association, and of the officers and
directors thereof if the applicant is a corporation, are such as to
command the confidence of the community and to warrant belief that the
business will be operated honestly, fairly, and efficiently within the
purpose of this article, the superintendent shall thereupon register the
applicant as a mortgage broker on a roll maintained for that purpose at
the department of financial services, and issue a certificate attesting
to such registration in duplicate. If the superintendent shall not so
find, the superintendent shall not register such applicant, and shall
notify the applicant of the denial. The superintendent shall transmit
one copy of such certificate to the applicant and file another in the
office of the department of financial services. Upon receipt of such
certificate a mortgage broker shall be authorized to engage in the
business of placing, processing and negotiating mortgage loans. Such
registration shall remain in full force and effect until it is
surrendered by the licensee or revoked or suspended as hereinafter
provided, except that such registration, notwithstanding any provisions
of subdivision five of section seventeen of this chapter to the
contrary, shall expire upon the registrant's failure to pay the required
assessment charged pursuant to such section seventeen thirty days after
the date or dates such payment or payments are due. If the registrant
fails to pay such charged assessment by the date or dates such payment
or payments are due, then the registrant shall be required to pay, in
addition, a late fee in the amount of one hundred dollars. Such
registration shall be reinstated if the registrant pays such assessment
charged and any applicable late fees and/or interest within sixty days
of such expiration. The superintendent shall approve or deny every
application for registration hereunder within ninety days from the
filing of a complete application provided, however, that failure to act
within the prescribed period shall not be deemed approval of any such
application.

2. The superintendent may refuse to issue a certificate pursuant to
this article if he or she shall find that the applicant, or any person
who is a director, officer, partner, agent, employee, substantial
stockholder of the applicant, consultant or person having a relationship
with the applicant similar to a consultant, (a) has been convicted of a
crime involving an activity which is a felony under this chapter or
under article one hundred fifty-five, one hundred seventy, one hundred
seventy-five, one hundred seventy-six, one hundred eighty, one hundred
eighty-five, one hundred eighty-seven, one hundred ninety, two hundred,
two hundred ten or four hundred seventy of the penal law or any
comparable felony under the laws of any other state or the United
States, provided that such crime would be a felony if committed and
prosecuted under the laws of this state or (b) has had a license or
registration revoked by the superintendent or (c) has been a director,
partner, or substantial stockholder of an entity which has had a license
or registration revoked by the superintendent or (d) has been an agent,
employee or officer of an entity, or a consultant to, or person having
had a similar relationship with, any entity which has had a license or
registration revoked by the superintendent where such person shall have
been found by the superintendent to bear responsibility in connection
with the revocation. The term "substantial stockholder", as used in this
subdivision, shall be deemed to refer to a person owning or controlling
directly or indirectly ten per centum or more of the total outstanding
stock of a corporation.