Pennsylvania mortgage advertising rules

License and NMLS ID display

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Regime A. STATUTE, two separate provisions, each single-element:

• Entity level. 7 Pa.C.S. § 6135(a)(5), quoted in full: *"Each licensee shall include in all advertisements the licensee's unique identifier."*
• Originator level. 7 Pa.C.S. § 6121(14): in the case of a mortgage originator, "clearly display the mortgage originator's unique identifier on all mortgage loan application forms and personal solicitations or advertisements, including business cards."

Conjunctive or disjunctive: Each provision mandates exactly one element. the unique identifier. with no alternative, so neither is disjunctive; there is simply nothing to choose between. But the two provisions stack: an advertisement placed by a licensee that also constitutes a mortgage originator's personal solicitation requires both the licensee's unique identifier and the originator's unique identifier. Note § 6135(a)(5)'s reach. "all advertisements," with no medium limitation and no business-card or letterhead exception (contrast NY § 38.2(a)).

Regime B. REGULATION, 10 Pa. Code § 41.2(a), name-based rather than identifier-based:

"In a printed or written advertisement, a licensee shall set forth its corporate or fictitious business name, or both, as designated in its license certificate"

with a direct-mail accommodation: "with respect to direct mail solicitation, it is only necessary for a licensee to set forth its corporate or fictitious business name, or both, once on any one of the pieces constituting a mail solicitation." The same subsection separately requires the name to be set forth "prominently ... on or at the entrance to its place of business."

*Note the regimes differ in kind:* Chapter 61 requires a number; Chapter 41 requires a name. A dual-licensed Pennsylvania lender needs both.

Prohibited claims

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Regime A. STATUTE, 7 Pa.C.S. § 6123(a)(3):

"Advertise, cause to be advertised or otherwise solicit whether orally, in writing, by telecast, by broadcast or in any other manner any statement or representation which is false, misleading or deceptive."

Regime A. REGULATION, 10 Pa. Code § 46.2(a), quoted in full: *"Advertising. A licensee may not engage in false or misleading advertising."* That is the entirety of Chapter 46's advertising content. Chapter 46 defines "Advertising" by reference: *"Advertising—As defined in 12 CFR 226.2(a)(2)."* (Again a stale Federal Reserve Reg Z citation; the current CFPB analogue is 12 C.F.R. 1026.2(a)(2).)

Regime A contains no express superlative, "guaranteed," "free," "pre-approved," or "government" prohibition. Searched all of 7 Pa.C.S. §§ 6121, 6123, 6135, 6140 and the full text of 10 Pa. Code Chapter 46.

Regime B. REGULATION, 10 Pa. Code § 41.2(b) and (c). this is where Pennsylvania's express claim rules live:

• § 41.2(c). SUPERLATIVES, EXPRESSLY, with a substantiation defense:

> "A licensee may not use the phrases 'low rates,' 'lower rates,' 'lowest rate in the city' or other similar phrases unless the licensee is able to substantiate the statements to the satisfaction of the Department, upon request."

*Attaches to: rates only. Note this is a substantiation standard, not a flat ban. but the substantiation must satisfy the Department "upon request," which implies a duty to hold support contemporaneously.*

• § 41.2(c). "LEGAL RATES": a licensee "may not use the term 'legal rates' in an advertisement, nor may similar phrases be used in an advertisement wherein the use might mislead the public into believing that the rate charged is the legal rate established by section 202 of the act of January 30, 1974 (41 P.S. § 202)."
• § 41.2(b). GENERAL + DEBT-INSTRUMENT CLAUSE: the Administrator "will prohibit the use of advertising matter by a licensee which, in his opinion, is false, misleading or deceptive or encourages the purchase of debt instruments from a licensee or its affiliates when the licensee knows or has reason to know that the debt instrument may not be paid at maturity."
• § 41.2(d). COMBINED ADVERTISING: advertisements "shall be limited to the business contemplated by the act," except that a licensee may combine with an advertisement of another leading business "if the advertisement clearly distinguishes the amounts of loans or the types of transactions offered by the respective businesses," and "The charges applicable to each type of loan or transaction shall be shown when reference is made to rates charged in combined advertising."

Rate advertising

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

• Regime B. REGULATION, 10 Pa. Code § 41.2(b), payment-amount trigger: "A licensee referring to payments on loans in an advertisement shall specify the amounts of the payments and the number of payments or period of time required to discharge the obligation." *Attaches to: any reference to payments.*
• Regime B. § 41.2(c), the superlative-substantiation rule above, attaches specifically to rates.
• Regime B. § 41.2(d), per-product charge disclosure in combined advertising.
• Regime A. no Pennsylvania-specific rate advertising requirement beyond federal Reg Z was located. Related but transactional, not advertising: 7 Pa.C.S. § 6121(11)(i) requires lock-in agreements to be in writing containing the lock-in expiration date, rate, discount points, fee, and lock-in fee. with a safe harbor at § 6121(11)(ii) for licensees complying with 12 C.F.R. 1026.37 (Loan Estimate). This constrains lock terms, not lock advertising.

Ad filing, prior approval, retention

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

• Regime A: no filing, no prior approval, and no advertising-specific retention rule found. The general books-and-records rule, 7 Pa.C.S. § 6135(a)(2), requires that "All records shall be preserved and kept available for investigation or examination by the department for a period of four years, unless otherwise determined by the department." Whether advertising samples are "records ... of the business conducted under the license" for this purpose is not expressly resolved. but four years is the outer bound a Pennsylvania mortgage licensee should assume.
• Regime B: express 6-month advertising retention. REGULATION, 10 Pa. Code § 41.2(a):

> "A licensee shall retain copies of advertising matter for at least 6 months following the final public dissemination of the advertising and shall make the advertising available upon request for inspection by the Administrator."

Note the clock runs from final public dissemination, not first publication. an evergreen campaign's retention clock does not start until the campaign comes down.

• Regime B also has an implicit review posture: § 41.2(b) says the Administrator "will prohibit the use of advertising matter" he deems false, misleading or deceptive. a prospective-prohibition framing, not merely an after-the-fact enforcement one. This is not a prior-approval requirement, but it is closer to one than the Chapter 61 regime.

Social media and character-limited media

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

VERIFIED 2026-09-17 for the mortgage regime. 7 Pa.C.S. § 6135(a)(5) [STATUTE] [OFFICIAL. legis.state.pa.us] requires the unique identifier "in all advertisements." 7 Pa.C.S. § 6123(a)(3) [STATUTE] reaches solicitations "whether orally, in writing, by telecast, by broadcast or in any other manner." No Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities social-media advertising guidance and no character-limit or abbreviated-disclosure accommodation was located. Searched dobs.pa.gov for social media advertising and the retrieved 7 Pa.C.S. Chapter 61 advertising provisions and 10 Pa. Code Chapter 46. A social post promoting mortgage loans is an advertisement and carries the unique-identifier duty.

CDCA regime (10 Pa. Code § 41.2(a)) remains limited on its face to "a printed or written advertisement." Whether that name rule reaches a social post is unresolved. Do not treat the CDCA printed-or-written limit as a mortgage-regime carve-out.

Penalties

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

STATUTE. 7 Pa.C.S. § 6140. Two parallel provisions, both capped at $10,000 per offense:

• § 6140(a) (unlicensed persons): a person subject to the chapter and not licensed who violates any provision, or commits any action that would subject a license to suspension, revocation or nonrenewal under § 6139, "may be fined by the department up to $10,000 for each offense."
• § 6140(b) (licensees): a licensee "or director, officer, owner, partner, employee, mortgage originator or agent of a licensee" who violates a provision or commits such an action "may be fined by the department up to $10,000 for each offense."

Note § 6140(b) reaches individual employees and agents personally, not just the licensed entity. Separately, § 6135(a)(3) imposes a report-filing penalty of "$100 for each day after the due date until the report is filed" (not advertising-related, included for completeness).

CDCA (Regime B) penalties: NOT VERIFIED. 7 P.S. §§ 6201–6219 penalty provisions were not retrieved.