PETITION OF:

Chapter 255E of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2000 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 10 the following section:—

Section 11. It shall be the continuing and affirmative obligation of each mortgage lender, who is licensed pursuant to this chapter and who, directly or indirectly, makes more than one hundred residential real estate mortgage loans in the commonwealth in any calendar year, as reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, 12 USC 1801 et seq., to help meet the housing credit needs of the communities in the commonwealth, including low and moderate income neighborhoods and residents, consistent with laws, rules and regulations of the commonwealth and the federal government relative thereto, and with safe and sound business practices.

The Commissioner of Banks shall assess the record of each such lender in satisfying this continuing and affirmative obligation. To assist in carrying out the provisions of this section, the

commissioner shall promulgate regulations which shall include, but need not be limited to, a consideration of such mortgage lender’s (a) origination of loans and other efforts to assist low and moderate income residents, without distinction, to be able to acquire or to remain in affordable housing in their neighborhoods, (b) origination of loans that show an undue concentration and a systematic pattern of lending resulting in the loss of affordable housing units, (c) efforts of the lender to work with delinquent residential mortgage customers who are unemployed or underemployed to facilitate a resolution of the delinquency and (d) such other considerations, including notice of the schedule of examinations and the right of interested parties to submit written comments relative to any such examination to the commissioner, as, in the judgment of the commissioner, reasonably bear upon the extent to which a mortgage lender is helping to meet the housing needs of communities in the commonwealth.

The Commissioner shall file any regulation proposed pursuant to this section, excluding emergency regulations adopted pursuant to section 2 of chapter 30A, or any amendment or repeal thereof with the clerks of the senate and house of representatives, together with a statement that the pertinent provisions of chapter 30A have been complied with and a summary of the regulations in ordinary language. The clerk shall refer such filing to the joint committee on banks and banking within 5 days of the filing thereof. No regulation shall take effect until 90 days after it has been so filed; provided, however, that such 90 day period shall not include days when the general court is prohibited by law or rule from meeting in formal session.

In considering an application from a licensed mortgage lender for a renewal of a license under this chapter, the commissioner shall consider, but shall not be limited to, the record of performance of any such lender relative to the provisions of this section.

Said record of performance may be the basis for the denial of any such renewal application.

Upon the completion of the examination of a mortgage lender under this section, the commissioner shall prepare a written evaluation of such lender’s record of performance, which will consist of a public section and a confidential section. The public section shall be open to public inspection upon request and said written evaluation shall include:—

(1) the assessment factors utilized to determine the mortgage lender’s descriptive rating;

(2) the commissioner’s conclusions with respect to each such assessment factor;

(3) a discussion of the facts supporting such conclusions; and

(4) the mortgage lender’s descriptive rating and the basis therefore.

Based upon such examination, the mortgage lender shall be assigned one of the following ratings:—

(a) outstanding record of performance in meeting the housing credit needs of communities in the commonwealth;

(b) high satisfactory record of performance in meeting the housing credit needs of communities in the commonwealth;

(d) needs to improve record of performance in meeting the housing credit needs of communities in the commonwealth; or

(e) substantial noncompliance in meeting the housing credit needs of communities in the commonwealth.

The confidential section of the performance evaluation shall contain all references that identify any customer of the lender, any employee or officer of the lender, or any person that has provided information in confidence to the commissioner or to any federal financial supervisory agency. The confidential section shall also contain any statements obtained or made by the commissioner in the course of an examination under this section, which, in the judgment of the commissioner, are too sensitive or speculative in nature to disclose to the public.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the commissioner shall establish an alternative examination procedure for any mortgage lender, which, as of the most recent examination, has been assigned a rating of outstanding or high satisfactory for its record of performance in meeting its community housing credit needs.

For the purposes of this section, no mortgage lender may include a loan origination or loan purchase for consideration as part of its review under this section if another mortgage lender claims the same loan origination or purchase for its review under this section or under section 14 of chapter 167 of the General Laws.