In reading the the RESPA rules regarding the payment of referral fees to employees, am I correct in my interpretation that we can pay employees of our bank for referring a customer to our Mortgage Dept who closes a loan with us? (Our Mort Dept is not an affiliate...it is part of the Bank. They don't close anything in the bank's name...everything is brokered out.) Or, are our Consumer and Commercial Loan Officers excluded from being eligible for referral fees? And would that include their Lending Assistants? Thanks in advance...

Section 8 of RESPA permits "An employer’s payment to it’s own employees for any referral activities". [24 CFR 3500.14(g)(1)(vii)]

RESPA allows the payment of referral fees by the bank to the bank's employees. As long as the bank, and no other party is paying the fees or reimbursing the bank for paying the fees.

In some material I have from the ABA Compliance School, I read where payments to employees are subject to strict limitations, and says payment to loan officers is prohibited...is that inaccurate?