§ 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.