What Marketers Need to Know … About Social Media Marketing Compliance and Mortgage Lending

Social media marketing has become increasingly popular with today’s mortgage lenders. It provides a platform for reaching a wider audience and can generate leads, drive website traffic, and increase the visibility of your institution’s brand. This can be a great tool for mortgage lenders to promote your offerings.

However, without clear guidelines regarding how and what can be published – along with proper monitoring measures – posting can land your institution in hot water … and potentially lead to large fines.

Key Regulations

Here are some no-go’s when writing loan-related advertising posts …

Examples of Risky Behavior in Social Media Marketing 

Not having social media posts reviewed by the marketing and compliance departments before  sharing.

Lenders posting rates, terms, and other triggering terms without proper disclosures.

Not identifying your financial institution.

Not including Equal Housing Lender (EHL) or Equal Housing Opportunity (EHO).

Not including the lender’s NMLS number.

Posting testimonials on social media without a signed release form for permission to use it.

Lenders sharing a separate post — not compliance or marketing approved — on their personal account about rates, terms, or special offers. 

Also, be aware of RESPA’s guidelines for relationships with realtors.

Avoid these potential RESPA-related compliance issues:

Having an advertisement of a co-hosted event promoted by a lender on your staff or a real estate agent that hasn’t been reviewed or approved by your marketing and compliance departments.

Lenders appearing on a realtor’s social media post without the approval of your marketing and compliance departments.

Best Practices for Social Media Marketing in Mortgage Lending 

Here are a few practices your institution can implement to help your social media compliance.

1. Maintain a good relationship with an open line of communication between marketing, compliance, and mortgage lenders.
2. Develop and/or update procedures to address privacy and confidentiality.
3. Work together to develop guidelines for social media posting, particularly in regard to RESPA and relationships with realtors.
4. Conduct regular trainings and discussions regarding social media marketing and compliance.
5. Provide lenders with pre-approved templates and/or images for their post(s) based on the guidelines that were created.
6. Review every post before it’s published to help …
   1. 1. Avoid misspellings, grammatical errors, triggering words without proper disclosures.
      2. Prevent over-promising or accidentally misleading statements.
         Always keep in mind, the review must be done in a timely manner, so it doesn’t slow down the process for the lender.
         
7. Keep a record of each post.
8. Deactivate all social media posts tied to a lender who’s left your institution.

Schedule a meeting with your lending and compliance teams to discuss what you’ve learned in this article and how you can all work together to be successful.

Do you have questions about this topic or other compliance-related items?