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Question:

What are some key controls a mortgage lender/broker should put in place to monitor the activity of its mortgage loan originators (MLOs) on social media?

Answer:

Social media has become a popular way for MLOs to market themselves and their services.  These types of commercial communications through platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other websites and platforms are considered advertising by regulators and violations of advertising requirements can be costly.  It is, therefore, important that residential mortgage lenders and brokers employing MLOs monitor the activities of their MLOs throughout the internet to ensure compliance with federal and state advertising requirements. 

Some best practices for implementing an effective social media oversight program include:

• Requiring all content to be approved by the mortgage lender’s/broker’s compliance department prior to posting.
• Actively and frequently monitoring social media activity, which may include ongoing audits, automated trigger notifications, or implementing software that identifies possible violations for the Compliance Department to review.
• Identifying, at the time of hire, where a MLO may have a social media presence and performing a targeted audit for compliance purposes.
• Providing ongoing training to MLOs on the "do’s and don’ts" of social media and advertising. 
• Maintaining social media business pages on behalf of MLOs and restricting them from using personal social media pages for business purposes.
• Documenting findings and corrective action, such as assigning additional training to MLOs that are in violation of the company policy.
• Performing a social media search at the time of deboarding a departing MLO to ensure the MLO updates all social media pages removing any affiliation with the company.  If an LO does not update his/her social media presence in a timely manner, a mortgage company should document its attempts to have the LO make the requested changes.