I have two questions. First, I have a mortgage loan officer that sends out a weekly news-email to realtors. He states rates for various mortgage loans, in the format "the 30-year fixed rate was between 6.0 and 6.3% this week..."
I've been asked if this is an advertisement, and if he needs to also quote APR.

Second question. A different loan officers wants to also send out weekly emails to realtors, and he wants to say "our 30 year fixed rate is 6.1%..." Does this make it an advertisement, thus requiring an APR to be quoted as well? If so, I've been asked, which APR do you quote, since APR varies on so many other factors (closing date, rate lock period, buy-downs or discounts, etc.)

Thanks for you help!

Informational material, for example, interest rate and loan term memos, distributed only to business entities are not considered advertisements under Reg Z. IMO emails to realtors would not be advertisements for Reg Z purposes.

Cindy, on a related note, check to be sure that these emails comply with the Can Spam requirements.

Lee,
I've been searching through Reg Z, and having a hard time finding the exclusion, can you tell me where you're finding a reference to "informational material?" And is the key that it's to "businesses" rather than the consumer?
Thank you!

The reference is in the commentary under the definition of "advertisement". See commentary to 226.2(a)(2) - 1, ii, B.

Found it, thanks! Can anyone give me some practical advice, I'm wondering if while the loan officers' emails are going to realtors (thus a business entity), the intent would certainly be to get loan applications from their customers. Do you think adding the wording to the news-email "for informational purposes to real estate agents only" would be advisable to help in having it be to "business entities only"?

I can't say such a statement would be required by Reg Z, however, we do state "Not for consumer use" on our rate sheets that are provided to brokers.