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All states · Filled 2026-09-17

Rhode Island mortgage advertising rules

Reference only

Adline flags phrases that match cited rules. It does not certify that Rhode Island 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. Rhode Island rules are written down here. The engine does not scan for them yet. The engine cites Washington, Arizona, and Idaho only.

Regulating agency

Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation (DBR), Banking Division.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation (DBR), Banking Division. The statute refers to "the director, or the director's designee."

NMLS and license display: Conjunctive and disjunctive elements.

Governing statute and administrative code

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • STATUTE. R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 19-14 (Licensed Activities. lenders, loan brokers, small loan lenders, third-party loan servicers); Chapter 19-14.1 (Licensed Lenders); Chapter 19-14.10, "An Act Adopting the Federal Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2009" (MLOs). Key sections: § 19-14.10-21 (Unique identifier shown), § 19-14.10-17 (Prohibited acts and practices), § 19-14.10-13 (Enforcement authorities, violations and penalties).
  • REGULATION. 230-RICR-40-10-2, "Lenders, Loan Brokers, Small Loan Lenders, Third-Party Loan Servicers and Mortgage Loan Originators." § 2.5(J) is the advertising provision.

Two (really four) regimes? Yes, and Rhode Island is unusual in that the advertising legend itself varies by license type (see §3). The four entity license types are Lender, Loan Broker, Small Loan Lender, and Third Party Loan Servicer, plus individually licensed Mortgage Loan Originators.

License and NMLS ID display

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Rhode Island is one of only two states in this batch (with New York) imposing a state-specific legend, and unlike New York it *also* imposes an NMLS-style identifier requirement. Both apply.

(a) Legend. REGULATION, 230-RICR-40-10-2, § 2.5(J):

"Each licensee shall include in all advertisements disseminated primarily in Rhode Island using words substantially similar to 'Rhode Island Licensed Lender,' 'Rhode Island Licensed Loan Broker,' 'Rhode Island Licensed Small Loan Lender' and/or 'Rhode Island Licensed Third Party Loan Servicer,' whichever is applicable."

*Three things to note.* (i) Scope is geographic, not absolute. the obligation attaches to advertisements "disseminated primarily in Rhode Island," which is a genuinely different trigger from every other state in this batch and is hard to apply to national digital media. (ii) "words substantially similar to" gives wording flexibility, as New York's "or words to like effect" does. (iii) The legend is license-type specific, and the rule says "and/or ... whichever is applicable". so a dual-licensed entity (e.g., Lender and Loan Broker) may need both strings.

(b) Name and identifier. STATUTE, R.I. Gen. Laws § 19-14.10-21, "Unique identifier shown" (full text):

"The name and the unique identifier assigned by the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System of any person originating a residential mortgage loan shall be clearly shown on all residential mortgage loan application forms, solicitations or advertisements, including business cards or websites, and any other documents as established by rule, regulation, or order of the director, or the director's designee."

Conjunctive or disjunctive: CONJUNCTIVE on both counts. § 19-14.10-21 requires "The name and the unique identifier". Rhode Island amended the standard SAFE Act text (P.L. 2022, ch. 338/339, eff. June 29, 2022) to add the name requirement, which most states' versions omit. And § 2.5(J)'s legend stacks on top. So a Rhode Island mortgage ad disseminated primarily in-state needs: name + NMLS unique identifier + the applicable "Rhode Island Licensed ___" legend. Note also that § 19-14.10-21 says "Nationwide Multistate Licensing System," not the older "Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry."

Prohibited claims

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • § 19-14.10-17(9). prohibited to "Make, 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 engage in bait-and-switch advertising." *Attaches to: rates, points, financing terms. plus bait-and-switch as a named practice.*
  • § 19-14.10-17(5). see §5 below.
  • § 19-14.10-17(1). "Directly or indirectly employ any scheme, device, or artifice to defraud or mislead borrowers or lenders or to defraud any person."
  • § 19-14.10-17(2). "Engage in any unfair or deceptive practice toward any person."
  • § 19-14.10-17(4). prohibited to solicit or contract with a borrower providing "that the person ... may earn a fee or commission through 'best efforts' to obtain a loan even though no loan is actually obtained for the borrower."

No express Rhode Island ban on "lowest," "best," "cheapest," "guaranteed," "pre-approved," "free," "no cost," or "government" was found, and no superlative prohibition. (Chapter 19-14.10 was amended by P.L. 2025, ch. 185/186, eff. June 24, 2025. the retrieved text is current through that amendment, which added § 19-14.10-17(15), barring acting as both real estate agent and MLO in the same transaction.)

Rate advertising

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

"Solicit, advertise, or enter into a contract for specific interest rates, points, or other financing terms unless the terms are actually available at the time of soliciting, advertising, or contracting"

*Attaches to: specific interest rates, points, and other financing terms.* Actual-availability standard, identical in substance to North Dakota and Oklahoma.

No Rhode Island-specific APR, rate-lock, or "rates subject to change" advertising requirement beyond federal Reg Z was located.

Ad filing, prior approval, retention

None found

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

No filing, prior approval, or advertising-retention requirement found. Searched 230-RICR-40-10-2 in full (the only "advertis" hits are § 2.5(D)(1)(a) on headquarters addresses, § 2.5(E)(1) on net branching, and § 2.5(J) itself) and searched 230-RICR-40-10-3 in full. that part returned zero occurrences of "advertis." Rhode Island does have a books-and-records provision at 230-RICR-40-10-2 § 2.9 ("Books Accounts and Records"), the text of which was not retrieved; whether it reaches advertising samples is NOT VERIFIED.

Social media and character-limited media

None found

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

NOT VERIFIED. "Websites" is named in § 19-14.10-21. No Rhode Island guidance on social media, texting, or abbreviated disclosures was located. A Rhode Island DBR Banking Bulletin 2018-4 exists and was surfaced in searching but was not retrieved. worth checking, as it may address advertising.

Anything unusual

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • "Disseminated primarily in Rhode Island" is the single most awkward trigger in this batch for digital advertising. A national paid-social campaign with Rhode Island in the geo-target is arguably not "primarily" in Rhode Island; a Rhode Island-geofenced ad set plainly is. There is no guidance interpreting this phrase, and the conservative posture is to apply the legend to any RI-geotargeted placement.
  • Rhode Island requires the licensee's NAME in advertising by statute. its § 19-14.10-21 is a non-standard variant of the model SAFE Act text. Compliance products built on the model text will get Rhode Island wrong.
  • Four different legend strings keyed to four license types, with "and/or" for dual-licensees.
  • Net branching is flatly prohibited (§ 2.5(E)) and the definition includes branch-manager control over "advertising" as an indicium. relevant to who may place and pay for branch-level ads.
  • Headquarters-address nuance (§ 2.5(D)(1)(a)): a Lender or Loan Broker whose NMLS main office is a headquarters where no licensable activity occurs "and whose address will not be held out to the public in any way, including on loan documents and advertising" is relieved of designating a Rhode Island-licensed MLO as Qualified Individual. Putting that HQ address into an ad forfeits the relief. an easy, non-obvious trap.

Penalties

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

STATUTE. R.I. Gen. Laws § 19-14.10-13. The director may deny/suspend/revoke/condition/decline to renew, order restitution, issue cease-and-desist orders (including immediate temporary orders), and impose fines. On amounts:

  • § 19-14.10-13(c): "The maximum amount of penalty for each act or omission described in subsection (b) shall be twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000)."
  • § 19-14.10-13(d): "Each violation or failure to comply with any directive or order of the director, or the director's designee, is a separate and distinct violation or failure."

Note § 19-14.10-13(b) reaches the employer: the director may penalize both the MLO and "any lender or loan broker licensed under chapter 14 or 14.1 of title 19 that employs such mortgage loan originator."

Sources

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