State Seeking $1.5 Million Penalty For East Hartford Mortgage Firm

HARTFORD, CT — The state Banking Department’s decision to pursue revoking the license of East Hartford-based mortgage firm 1st Alliance Lending came after it discovered that pre-approval screening staff were doing more than collecting information, an attorney for the department said Tuesday.

A hearing on the state’s revocation began Tuesday in an unremarkable Banking Department conference room in the agency’s Constitution Plaza offices.

1st Alliance has fiercely contested the state’s actions, and has accused the state of conducting an unfair and vindictive investigation to put the firm out of business. The company has said the intake employees were only a first step in the mortgage pre-approval process, and that nobody would have confused them with a decision-maker in the loan process.

Attorney Stacey Serrano in her opening statement said there was harm to consumers in Connecticut and nationally, even if it’s “non-quantifiable.” She said consumers dealing with these screeners, who were not licensed as mortgage loan originators, were steered toward particular products and were not offered the level of transparency they should have been.

Read more: https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/20190924_state_seeking_1.5_million_penalty_for_east_hartford_mortgage_firm/