What is the difference between company, branch, and individual NMLS records?

The company record is the anchor. Form MU1 carries the entity's identity, ownership, financial statements, and the state licenses the company holds, and every state license managed through the system attaches to it. Form MU2 records sit under the company for each control person, the executives and owners whose background checks and disclosures the states review. Form MU3 registers branch locations where states license branches separately, and Form MU4 is the individual license record for mortgage loan originators. A mortgage company therefore runs a stack: one MU1, an MU2 for each control person, an MU3 per licensed branch, and a sponsored MU4 for every originator.

The NMLS is no longer mortgage-only. States have migrated many non-mortgage license types onto the system, including consumer lending, sales finance, debt, and money services licenses in a growing number of states. For those licenses the company and control-person records work the same way, but there is usually no individual originator layer: a consumer lender's employees do not hold personal licenses the way MLOs do. Whether your lending license files through the NMLS or a state's own portal depends on the state, so multi-state lenders commonly manage both tracks at once.

Renewal runs on the system's annual window, generally November 1 through December 31, when company, branch, and individual records are all attested and renewed for the coming year. Missing the window can leave a license in a terminated-failed-to-renew status that takes reinstatement filings to cure. Our answer on what the NMLS is covers the framework, and managing NMLS and non-NMLS licenses together covers running the mixed portfolio.