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All states · Filled 2026-09-17

Massachusetts mortgage advertising rules

Reference only

Adline flags phrases that match cited rules. It does not certify that Massachusetts 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.

Reference only. Massachusetts rules are written down here. The engine does not scan for them yet. The engine cites Washington, Arizona, and Idaho only.

Regulating agency

Division of Banks

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Division of Banks (Massachusetts Division of Banks, within the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation). licenses and examines mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, and mortgage loan originators.

Second, independent enforcer: the Office of the Attorney General, which has its own binding mortgage-advertising regulation under the Massachusetts consumer-protection statute (M.G.L. c. 93A). This is a genuine dual-regulator situation, not a dual-license situation.

NMLS and license display: Conjunctive.

Governing statute and administrative code

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • [STATUTE] M.G.L. c. 255E. Licensing of Certain Mortgage Lenders and Brokers.
  • [STATUTE] M.G.L. c. 255F. Licensing of Mortgage Loan Originators.
  • [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.00. The Licensing of Mortgage Lenders and Mortgage Brokers (Division of Banks).
  • [REGULATION] 209 CMR 41.00. The Licensing of Mortgage Loan Originators (Division of Banks).
  • [REGULATION] 209 CMR 32.00. Truth in Lending (Division of Banks); § 32.24 is the closed-end advertising section.
  • [REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.00. Mortgage Brokers and Mortgage Lenders (Attorney General), promulgated under M.G.L. c. 93A § 2(c). § 8.04 is "Advertising Practices."

Two-regime note: MA's split is *regulator*-based, not license-based. 209 CMR 42/41 bind Division of Banks licensees. 940 CMR 8.00 binds, by its own terms, "any mortgage lender or broker advertising or doing business within Massachusetts, regardless of whether or not the lender or broker maintains an office in Massachusetts" (940 CMR 8.02), and reaches advertising "disseminated or accessible within Massachusetts if the advertisement is directed to consumers in Massachusetts" (940 CMR 8.03, definition of *Advertisement*). A federally chartered or exempt entity outside the Division's licensing reach can still be exposed under 940 CMR 8.00 / c. 93A.

License and NMLS ID display

Verified

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

(a) Company. Division of Banks. [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.14: "A Licensee shall also disclose the type and number of its license(s) in all advertisements." Note this is *license type AND license number*. both elements.

(b) Company. Attorney General. [REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.04(2): it is an unfair or deceptive act or practice to advertise "without clearly and conspicuously disclosing its business name, and if required to be licensed pursuant to M.G.L. c. 255E, the words broker" or "lender", as applicable, and the license number." This is the strictest single advertising ID rule found in batch 3. It is conjunctive with three elements: (i) business name, (ii) the literal word "broker" or "lender" as applicable, and (iii) the license number. The literal-word requirement is unusual and is frequently missed.

(c) Individual MLO. [REGULATION] 209 CMR 41.12(2): "A Licensee's Mortgage Loan Originator license number shall be clearly shown on all residential mortgage loan application forms, solicitations or advertisements including, without limitation, business cards and websites."

(d) Enforcement hook. [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.12A(12) makes it "a prohibited act or practice for a mortgage broker or mortgage lender to fail to disclose the type and number of its license in an advertisement." And 42.12A(13) prohibits an "employee or a person associated with and acting under the direction of" a licensee from advertising "residential mortgage loan services without naming the licensee and disclosing the license number of the mortgage broker or mortgage lender under whose license the individual is acting." That subsection is conjunctive: name the licensee AND disclose its license number.

"Clear and conspicuous" in 940 CMR 8.00 is defined by cross-reference to 940 CMR 6.01 and carries hard typographic floors: for print, the material representation must appear "in type which is at least one-third the size of the largest type of information which it modifies and is a minimum of eight point type"; for TV video, "not less than 14 scan lines in height" and on screen "at least one second for every three words of the material representation but not less than a total of five seconds."

Prohibited claims

Verified

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

[REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.04(4). bait advertising and misrepresentation of terms. Violations "include, but shall not be limited to":

  • (a) "the advertisement of 'immediate approval' of a loan application or 'immediate closing' of a loan or words of similar import, such as 'instant closing'";
  • (b) "the advertisement of a 'no point' mortgage loan when points are required or accepted by the lender as a condition for commitment or closing";
  • (c) "the advertisement of an incorrect specific number of points required for commitment or closing";
  • (d) "the advertisement through terms such as 'bad credit no problem' or words of similar import or that an applicant will have unqualified access to credit without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the material limitations on the availability of credit";
  • (e) use of "avoid foreclosure" or words of similar import, unless the ad also clearly and conspicuously discloses that the borrower must refinance or take a new loan, may pay significantly higher rates, and carries the warning "you may lose your home if you cannot make all the payments or if you miss any of the payments on this loan."

[REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.04(1). general falsity standard, with an affirmative-substantiation element: it is unfair or deceptive to make any representation in an advertisement that is false or misleading "or if the mortgage broker or lender does not have sufficient information upon which a reasonable belief in the truth of the representation or statement could be based."

[REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.04(3). "It is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a mortgage broker to represent in any advertisement that the mortgage broker will fund a mortgage loan." Attaches only to brokers.

No express MA ban on the words "lowest," "best," or "cheapest" was located. Those would be reached, if at all, through the general falsity/substantiation standard in 940 CMR 8.04(1) and 8.06(1). Searched: 940 CMR 8.00 full text, 209 CMR 42.00, 209 CMR 41.00. NOT VERIFIED as an express superlative ban.

Rate advertising

Verified

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.12A(4). the single most-missed Massachusetts rule. "It is a prohibited act or practice for a mortgage broker to advertise any interest rate or loan term described in 12 CFR 1026.24(c) in any media without the following statement: 'We arrange but do not make loans.' No advertisement by a mortgage broker in any media shall contain language which indicates or suggests that the mortgage broker will fund or approve a mortgage loan or guarantee any rate."

This is a mandatory verbatim legend triggered by any Reg Z § 1026.24(c) rate/term disclosure, binding mortgage brokers only, in any media.

  • [REGULATION] 940 CMR 8.04(5). failing to comply with state and federal TILA advertising law (M.G.L. c. 140D; 15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) when advertising any finance terms is itself an unfair or deceptive act.
  • [REGULATION] 209 CMR 32.24 (closed-end advertising) provides that "Compliance with 12 CFR 1026.24 constitutes compliance with 209 CMR 32.24." So MA's TIL advertising rule is a federal-parity rule and adds nothing beyond Reg Z on its own terms. the MA-specific overlay lives in 42.12A(4) and 940 CMR 8.04.
  • Rate lock: [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.11A governs mortgage loan rate lock commitments, and 209 CMR 42.12A(3) bars a broker from issuing a rate lock on its own behalf or implying it can lock a rate for the consumer. A broker's rate-preference form "must clearly and conspicuously contain the following statement: 'This is a request, not a commitment, to lock your interest rate with a mortgage lender.'". another mandatory verbatim legend.

Ad filing, prior approval, retention

None found

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • Prior approval / filing: none located. Searched 209 CMR 42.00, 209 CMR 41.00, 940 CMR 8.00 and the Division of Banks regulations index. NOT VERIFIED that any MA filing or pre-approval requirement exists; the affirmative evidence points to no such requirement.
  • Retention. 3 years. [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.09(4): "Every mortgage broker or mortgage lender shall maintain a copy of each separate advertisement (including commercial scripts of all radio broadcasts, television broadcasts and electronic media) for examination by the Commissioner for a period of three years from the date of publication. If the exact same advertisement is used multiple times and in different media, only one copy need be retained."

Social media and character-limited media

None found

Regulation. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

No MA rule or guidance addressing social media by name, and no abbreviated-disclosure accommodation for character-limited media was located. which matters a great deal in MA because the 940 CMR 8.04(2) legend (name + the word "broker"/"lender" + license number) and the 209 CMR 42.12A(4) broker legend have no stated media carve-out. 940 CMR 8.03 defines *Advertisement* to include "any representation made in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication or on the internet, radio or television," and 209 CMR 42.09(4) expressly reaches "electronic media." 209 CMR 41.12(2) expressly names websites. Searched: Mass.gov Division of Banks regulations pages, 209 CMR 41/42, 940 CMR 8.00. NOT VERIFIED that any social-media-specific MA guidance exists.

Anything unusual

Last verified 2026-09-17.

1. The "We arrange but do not make loans." legend (209 CMR 42.12A(4)). verbatim, media-agnostic, broker-only, triggered by Reg Z trigger terms. 2. The literal words "broker" or "lender" must appear in the ad under 940 CMR 8.04(2), on top of the business name and license number. 3. Typographic minimums are real and specific (one-third the size of the largest modified type, 8-point floor; 14 scan lines; 5-second/one-second-per-three-words TV floor) via the 940 CMR 6.01 cross-reference. 4. Extraterritorial reach. 940 CMR 8.02 applies to any lender or broker advertising into MA with no office there, and 8.03 catches advertising "accessible within Massachusetts if the advertisement is directed to consumers in Massachusetts." 5. Two enforcers, two theories. The AG can proceed under c. 93A for the same ad the Division would cite under 209 CMR 42, and c. 93A carries multiple damages and fee-shifting that the licensing statute does not.

Penalties

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

[STATUTE] M.G.L. c. 255E § 11(a): the Commissioner "may impose a penalty upon the person which shall not exceed $5,000 for each violation, up to a maximum of $100,000 for such violation plus the costs of investigation." § 11(b) preserves private damages/restitution actions. [REGULATION] 209 CMR 42.12A(19): a violation of 42.12A "shall constitute grounds for the issuance of a cease and desist order under M.G.L. c. 255E, § 7; shall constitute grounds for license suspension or revocation under M.G.L. c. 255E, § 6 and shall constitute grounds for an administrative fine or penalty under M.G.L. c. 255E, § 11." 940 CMR 8.00 violations are c. 93A § 2 violations, exposing the advertiser to AG enforcement and to private c. 93A actions.

Sources

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