Adline

All states · Filled 2026-09-17

Colorado mortgage advertising rules

Adline flags phrases that match cited rules. It does not certify that Colorado marketing is compliant. We flag and cite. We never certify. This is not legal advice. Whether a rule reaches you depends on your license type. Federal Reg Z and Reg N still apply.

Scanner status: Index only. The engine cites Washington, Arizona, and Idaho only. This page is an index of retrieved text. The engine does not emit a Colorado citation.

Regulating agency

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), Division of Real Estate

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), Division of Real Estate. Board of Mortgage Loan Originators. (Like Arkansas, Colorado is *not* a banking-department state for mortgage; mortgage sits with the real estate division.) [OFFICIAL. dre.colorado.gov]

NMLS and license display: Conjunctive and disjunctive elements.

Governing statute and administrative code

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • Mortgage Loan Originators, C.R.S. §§ 12-10-701 to -730 [STATUTE]
  • 4 CCR 725-3. Mortgage Loan Originators and Mortgage Companies, Chapter 5 (Professional Standards), Rules 5.1 and 5.2 [REGULATION] [OFFICIAL. sos.state.co.us]

License and NMLS ID display

Verified

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Rule 5.1(b) [REGULATION] [OFFICIAL. Colorado SOS] requires an advertisement to contain:

"(1) At least one (1) responsible party. The responsible party must be an individual person or a mortgage company. The responsible party must include their registration number that is approved on the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS)"
"(2) The mortgage company name."
"(3) The business phone number of the responsible party."

CONJUNCTIVE. all three required together. Note the composition:

  • The "responsible party" element is itself disjunctive. it may be an *individual* or a *mortgage company*. So the NMLS number displayed can be either the MLO's or the company's.
  • But (2) is unconditional: the mortgage company name must appear regardless of who the responsible party is. An individual-LO ad showing only the LO's name and NMLS number is non-compliant in Colorado.
  • (3) requires a business phone number. an element almost no other state in this batch requires. This is a frequent miss on display banners, static social images, and short-form video.

Prohibited claims

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Rule 5.1(c) [REGULATION] [OFFICIAL]:

"The advertisement shall not appear to be offered by a government agency, a quasi-government agency or the perspective borrower's current lender and/or loan servicer"

(Note: "perspective" is the published spelling; "quasi-government" and "loan servicer" are both expressly covered. broader than most states, which stop at "government" and "current lender.")

Rule 5.1(d) [REGULATION] [OFFICIAL]:

"An advertisement shall not make or omit any statement the result of which would be to present a misleading or deceptive impression to consumers"

Note the "or omit". Colorado expressly makes omission an independent violation, not merely a factor.

C.R.S. § 12-10-713 [STATUTE] [REPRODUCTION. FindLaw]. grounds for discipline include:

  • (a) *"Knowingly making any misrepresentation or knowingly making use of any false or misleading advertising"*
  • (c) *"Knowingly misrepresenting or making false promises through agents, salespersons, advertising, or otherwise"*
  • (cc) *"Making, in any manner, any false or deceptive statement or representation with regard to the rates, points, or other financing terms or conditions for a residential mortgage loan or engaging in bait and switch advertising"*

"Bait and switch advertising" is named as a distinct statutory violation. Colorado does not make you prove it through a general deception theory.

No express word-ban on "lowest," "best," "cheapest," "guaranteed," "pre-approved," "free," or "no cost" located.

Rate advertising

Verified

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Rule 5.1(a) [REGULATION] [REPRODUCTION. Cornell LII]:

"An Advertisement must be made only for such products and terms as are actually available at the time they are offered"

Rule 5.1(f) requires advertisements to incorporate the Interagency Guidance on Nontraditional Mortgage Products (September 29, 2006). PARAPHRASE. NOT VERBATIM. This is notable: Colorado **converts federal interagency *guidance* into a binding state regulatory requirement** for nontraditional-product advertising. Re-pull Rule 5.1(f) verbatim.

No Colorado-specific APR, lock-term, or "rates subject to change" mandate located beyond the above.

Ad filing, prior approval, retention

None found

Last verified 2026-09-17.

No prior approval or filing requirement located.

Rule 5.1(g) [REGULATION] [OFFICIAL]:

"The responsible party must retain copies of all advertisements for a period of four (4) years, and provide said copies for inspection"

Four years is the longest retention period in this batch (vs. Connecticut and Florida at 2 years). Note the duty falls on the "responsible party". i.e., potentially the individual MLO, not only the company. An LO who runs their own social creative personally owns a 4-year retention duty.

Social media and character-limited media

Not yet verified

Last verified 2026-09-17.

NOT VERIFIED as a distinct social-media guidance document. No character-limit or abbreviated-disclosure accommodation exists. and Colorado's three-element conjunctive disclosure (company name + NMLS number + phone number) is the heaviest in this batch for short-form media.

However, Rule 5.2 [REGULATION] provides two narrow exemptions from Rule 5.1(b) (the disclosure triple). [OFFICIAL / Cornell LII, partly paraphrased]:

  • 5.2(a). indirect promotional items: *"inscription on a coffee mug, pen, pencil, youth league jersey, sign, business card, or other promotional item"* containing only company name, MLO name/title, contact info, or registration numbers.
  • 5.2(b). *"rate sheet, pricing sheet, or similar proprietary information provided to real estate brokers, builders, and other commercial entities that is not intended for distribution to consumers."*

⚠️ Note 5.2(a) lists "business card" and "sign" as exempt from the disclosure triple. the opposite of most states, which expressly *include* business cards. Verify Rule 5.2(a) verbatim; this inverts the common assumption.

⚠️ Neither exemption covers social media, SMS, or display advertising. Do not stretch the "promotional item" exemption to cover a branded social post.

Anything unusual

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • Phone number is a mandatory ad element. Nearly unique in this batch.
  • Company name is required even in an individual LO's ad.
  • 4-year retention, owed by the "responsible party". which can be a natural person.
  • Federal interagency guidance is made binding by state rule (Rule 5.1(f)). so nontraditional-product ad requirements that are merely "guidance" federally are *law* in Colorado.
  • **Rule 5.1(c) covers the borrower's current *servicer*, not just the current lender**. servicing-transfer-lookalike creative is exposed.
  • Rule 5.1(d)'s "or omit". omission is an independent violation.
  • Mortgage advertising regulated by the real estate division, so precedent lives in Division of Real Estate orders, not banking orders.

Penalties

Not yet verified

Last verified 2026-09-17.

NOT VERIFIED. Did not retrieve Colorado's civil-penalty amounts for MLO advertising violations (C.R.S. § 12-10-713 sets grounds for discipline; the penalty provision was not retrieved).

Sources

---

Sources

Last verified 2026-09-17. Official means the legislature, the official administrative-code publisher, or the regulator. Reproduction is not the official publisher.