Adline

All states · Filled 2026-09-17

Wisconsin mortgage advertising rules

Reference only

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

Regulating agency

Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Division of Banking. (Defined in the rules: "'Division' means the division of banking.". Wis. Admin. Code DFI-Bkg 40.01(1).)

NMLS and license display: Conjunctive and disjunctive elements.

Governing statute and administrative code

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • [STATUTE] Wis. Stat. ch. 224, subch. III. Mortgage Banking (§§ 224.71–224.79). Advertising requirements sit in §224.77(1); recordkeeping in §224.74(2); forfeitures in §224.77(1m).
  • [REGULATION] Wis. Admin. Code ch. DFI-Bkg 40 (Definitions and Requirements for Mortgage Banking Regulation, §§ 40.01–40.06) and ch. DFI-Bkg 41 (Fees and Renewals, §§ 41.01–41.05).
  • Important: chs. DFI-Bkg 42 through 46 no longer exist. Direct requests for each returned "The content you are trying to access is unavailable" from the official Legislature document server, while chs. 40 and 41 returned full text. Wis. Stat. §224.76 still carries a cross-reference reading "See also ch. DFI-Bkg 42, Wis. adm. code," which is now a dangling cross-reference in the statute. Do not cite DFI-Bkg 42 (or 43–46).
  • DFI-Bkg 40 contains NO advertising rule. Its six sections are: 40.01 Definitions, 40.02 Source for financing a loan, 40.03 Branch offices, 40.04 Trade names, 40.05 Surety bonds, 40.06 Loan processors and underwriters. Wisconsin's advertising law is entirely statutory.
  • Second regime: Wis. Stat. §138.09 (Licensed lenders). separate licensing for consumer lenders, with its own advertising prohibition at §138.09(5). Both §138.09(5) and the payday provision at §138.14(...)(e) route to Wis. Stat. §423.301 (Wisconsin Consumer Act advertising). See §4 and the caveat there.

License and NMLS ID display

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Required. The requirement is split across two paragraphs of §224.77(1), and read together it is CONJUNCTIVE.

Element 1. the unique identifier, with an unusually specific media list:

"(sn) As a mortgage banker, mortgage broker, or mortgage loan originator, fail to clearly place his, her, or its unique identifier on all residential mortgage loan application forms, solicitations, and advertisements, including business cards, Internet sites, email signature blocks, and on all other documents specified by rule of the division." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1)(sn) [STATUTE] (drafted as a prohibited act, so the duty is the negative of the quoted text)

Element 2. the name, clearly and conspicuously:

"(sq) As a mortgage banker, mortgage broker, or mortgage loan originator, use any solicitation or advertisement to which any of the following applies: … 3. The solicitation or advertisement does not clearly and conspicuously identify the name of the mortgage broker or mortgage banker or, if a mortgage loan originator is sponsored by a registered entity, the registered entity." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1)(sq)3. [STATUTE]

So a compliant Wisconsin ad carries both the unique identifier (sn) and a clear, conspicuous company name (sq)3. Note (sq)3 itself contains an internal disjunctive: the name to be shown is that of the mortgage broker or mortgage banker, or, where an originator is sponsored by a registered entity, the registered entity.

"Email signature blocks" is named expressly in statute. Wisconsin and Vermont (by guidance) are the only jurisdictions in this batch to call out email signatures by name, and Wisconsin is the only one to do so in a statute.

Prohibited claims

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

Government / organization affiliation and government-benefit claims. expressly enumerated, and the format language is broad:

"(sq) … use any solicitation or advertisement to which any of the following applies: 1. The solicitation or advertisement misrepresents that the provider is, or is affiliated with, any governmental entity or other organization. 2. The solicitation or advertisement misrepresents that the product is or relates to a government benefit, or is endorsed, sponsored by, or affiliated with any government or government-related program, including through the use of formats, symbols, or logos that resemble those of such entity, organization, or program." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1)(sq)1.–2. [STATUTE]

Attaches to: the provider's identity (1) and the product's character (2). Subparagraph 2's "including through the use of formats, symbols, or logos that resemble those of such entity" is a design-level prohibition, not just a wording prohibition. the same territory Washington covers by rule at WAC 208-660-440(2).

Bait and switch / false rate representations:

"(b) Make, in any manner, any materially false or deceptive statement or representation, including engaging in bait and switch advertising or falsely representing residential mortgage loan rates, points, or other financing terms or conditions." "(d) Pursue a continued and flagrant course of misrepresentation, or make false promises, whether directly or through agents or advertising." "(c) Make a false, deceptive, or misleading promise relating to the services being offered or that influences, persuades, or induces a client to act to his or her detriment." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1)(b), (c), (d) [STATUTE]

No express ban on "lowest," "best," "cheapest," "guaranteed," "pre-approved," "free," or "no cost" was found in ch. 224 subch. III.

"Best efforts" contracts:

"(u) Solicit or enter into a contract with a borrower that provides in substance that the mortgage banker, mortgage broker, or mortgage loan originator may earn a fee or commission through 'best efforts' to obtain a residential mortgage loan even though no residential mortgage loan is actually obtained for the borrower."

Second regime. Wis. Stat. §138.09(5) [STATUTE], licensed lenders:

"No licensee shall advertise, print, display, publish, distribute or broadcast or cause to be printed, displayed, published, distributed or broadcast in any manner any statement with regard to the rates, terms or conditions for the lending of money, credit, goods or things in action which is false or calculated to deceive. With respect to matters specifically governed by s. 423.301, compliance with such section satisfies the requirements of this paragraph."

"False or calculated to deceive" is a lower threshold than actual falsity. an accurate statement engineered to mislead is captured. A materially identical provision governs payday lenders at Wis. Stat. §138.14.

Wis. Stat. §423.301 (Wisconsin Consumer Act. Advertising) is NOT VERIFIED. Both §138.09(5) and §138.14 expressly route to it and treat compliance with §423.301 as safe harbor, so the cross-reference is confirmed from retrieved statutory text; but the Wisconsin Legislature's document server returned HTTP 503 / connection failures on five separate attempts to retrieve ch. 423, and robots.txt blocked the fetch fallback. Did not read §423.301 and quote nothing from it. A complete Wisconsin consumer-lender advertising row requires it.

Rate advertising

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

"(um) 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." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1)(um) [STATUTE]

Note that Wisconsin's version, unlike Washington's RCW 19.146.0201(5), does not name a required counterparty. availability is judged at large. No Wisconsin-specific APR-prominence or rate-sheet-retention rule was found.

Ad filing, prior approval, retention

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • No filing or prior approval required.
  • Retention. 36 months, and the location restriction is the unusual part:

> "(2) PERIOD OF RECORD RETENTION. A mortgage banker or mortgage broker shall keep for at least 36 months, in an office of the mortgage banker or mortgage broker licensed under this subchapter but one that is not located in a residence unless the residence is authorized as a principal office under s. 224.72(2m)(b)2., all books and records that, in the opinion of the division, will enable the division to determine whether the mortgage banker or mortgage broker is in compliance with the provisions of this subchapter… The retention period begins on the date the residential mortgage loan is closed or, if the loan is not closed, the date of loan application. If the residential mortgage loan is serviced by a mortgage banker, the retention period commences on the date that the loan is paid in full." >. Wis. Stat. §224.74(2) [STATUTE]

  • Advertising is not separately enumerated among the retained records, though the provision sweeps in "other relevant documents or correspondence received or prepared… in connection with a residential mortgage loan or residential mortgage loan application." Because the clock is keyed to a loan or application, Wisconsin's retention rule maps poorly onto general-market advertising that never produced an application. Whether general brand advertising must be retained in Wisconsin is NOT VERIFIED.
  • Records may not be kept in a residence unless that residence is an authorized principal office. Remote-work marketing teams archiving creative on home equipment are outside the statute as written.

Social media and character-limited media

Not yet verified

Last verified 2026-09-17.

NOT VERIFIED as a labeled category. but the statute names the digital media directly. §224.77(1)(sn) expressly extends the unique-identifier requirement to "Internet sites" and "email signature blocks." There is no provision addressing social media platforms by name, no texting provision, and no abbreviated-disclosure accommodation for character-limited media. which, combined with (sn)'s "all… advertisements" and (sq)3's name requirement, means a Wisconsin-facing short-form post must carry both identifiers in full.

Anything unusual

Last verified 2026-09-17.

  • Hard cap of five trade names. a real operational constraint:

> "(1) A licensee may not conduct business under any name or names other than the name or names listed on the license. > (2) Before using any trade name or d/b/a designation, a licensee shall obtain approval from the division for the use of the trade name or d/b/a designation. > (3) The combined total of trade names and d/b/a designations used by a licensee in Wisconsin may not exceed five." >. Wis. Admin. Code DFI-Bkg 40.04 [REGULATION]

This is close to a prior-approval regime for brand identity. A national lender running per-vertical or per-campaign brands will hit the five-name ceiling in Wisconsin, and each one needs Division approval before use. This is the single most likely Wisconsin tripwire for a marketing organization.

  • "Email signature blocks" in statute. an unusually granular statutory media enumeration.
  • The DFI-Bkg 42 dangling cross-reference. Wis. Stat. §224.76 still says "Cross-reference: See also ch. DFI-Bkg 42, Wis. adm. code," but that chapter is no longer served. A rule library that resolves statutory cross-references automatically will produce a dead cite here.
  • Branch-license-transfer indicia include advertising costs: paying for "utilities, advertising or other bills incurred by the branch" is listed as conduct demonstrating that a license "has been transferred or assigned to the branch," which is prohibited. DFI-Bkg 40.03(3)(b). Co-op advertising funding between a company and a branch has licensing consequences in Wisconsin.
  • The forfeiture ceiling is high. $25,000 per violation, tied with DC for the highest in this batch.

Penalties

Verified

Statute. Guidance is not law.

Last verified 2026-09-17.

"(1m) ADMINISTRATIVE FORFEITURE AND HEARING RIGHTS. (a) The division may assess against any person who violates this subchapter a forfeiture of not more than $25,000 for each violation and may further order restitution to any person suffering loss as a result of the violation." — Wis. Stat. §224.77(1m)(a) [STATUTE]

Procedure: a contest must be filed within 10 days after receipt of notice, by written request for hearing under s. 227.44 to the Division of Hearings and Appeals; that division must commence the hearing within 30 days of the request and issue a final decision within 15 days after the close of the hearing. Forfeitures are payable within 10 days and are remitted to the school fund. The attorney general may sue to collect, and "the only issue to be contested in any such action shall be whether the forfeiture or restitution amount has been paid."

The 10-day contest window is short and should be in any escalation playbook.

Sources

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