Louisiana Mortgage Broker Bond

It is $25,000 if the original outstanding principal of the Louisiana residential mortgage loans you originated or serviced in the prior calendar year was under $100 million, and $50,000 once you reach $100 million or more. La. R.S. 6:1088 sets those two figures, and the bond names the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions (OFI) as obligee. Because most licensees sit under the $100M line, the great majority file the $25,000 bond. You pay a premium — a small percentage of that penal sum — not the full amount.

This is the detail that trips people up. Louisiana does not measure your national book or your headcount — it measures the total dollar amount of the original outstanding principal balance of all residential mortgage loans you originated or serviced in Louisiana during the previous calendar year. Servicing counts, not just originations, so a lender that keeps and services its book can cross $100 million faster than an originate-and-sell shop of the same size. New applicants with no prior Louisiana volume start at the $25,000 tier.

Yes — Louisiana is one of the few states that writes this alternative directly into the statute. Instead of a surety bond, you may deposit an amount equal to the required bond ($25,000 or $50,000) in a federally insured depository institution located in Louisiana, with the account titled 'for the benefit of' (f/b/o) the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions. Interest earned on the deposit stays yours. In practice almost no one uses it: the CD ties up the full $25,000 or $50,000 in frozen cash, while a surety bond costs a premium of roughly 1–3% of that amount and leaves your capital free to lend.

No. Louisiana requires one bond per licensed entity, sized by that entity's volume — not one bond per originator. Under La. R.S. 6:1088, an individual mortgage originator employed by, or acting as the exclusive agent of, a licensed company satisfies the bond requirement by showing that the employer's bond meets the statute. So a sponsoring broker or lender carries a single bond, and its sponsored MLOs are covered under it.

Yes. Louisiana licenses residential mortgage activity — brokering, lending, and servicing — through the OFI under a single residential mortgage lending license, and the bond attaches to that license by volume rather than by a separate broker-versus-lender schedule. That is different from states like Georgia, which set a flat $150,000 for brokers and $250,000 for lenders. In Louisiana the only variable that changes your penal sum is whether your prior-year Louisiana volume is under or over $100 million.

For your entire time as a licensee. La. R.S. 6:1088 requires every person licensed by the commissioner to maintain the bond at all times during licensure, so a lapse or cancellation puts your license in jeopardy. If your Louisiana volume grows past $100 million, you move up to the $50,000 tier and need the larger bond on file before the OFI treats you as compliant. Treat a tier change like a filing deadline, not paperwork you can defer.

The bond is filed alongside an NMLS company (MU1) filing, audited financial statements, a business plan, and background checks on control persons. Louisiana does not impose a minimum net-worth dollar figure the way some states do, but it does require the financial statements. Individual originators complete the SAFE 20-hour pre-licensing education, pass the national test, and file an MU4. The bond is the piece we handle — the OFI-accepted form, issued to the exact $25,000 or $50,000 penal sum and filed electronically through NMLS.