COEUR d'ALENE - More than 100 Spokane Teachers Credit Union employees are scheduled to be fingerprinted today.

That's part of the process of complying with new federal rules for anyone who works as a mortgage loan originator.

The same process that includes both fingerprinting and FBI background checks is happening at thousands of credit unions, banks and other financial institutions nationwide.

The institutions are complying with the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, sometimes called the SAFE Act. It was enacted as a response to the subprime-lending crisis and national recession.

Scott Adkins, STCU vice president of lending, said the credit union didn't engage in the risky lending practices that led to the crisis.

"Nonetheless, we will be ready to comply with the new regulations when they take effect later this month," Adkins said.

The new procedures give consumers a way to confirm that the person who accesses their sensitive financial records and provides lending advice is a registered mortgage loan originator.

Michael Smith, senior vice president for Idaho Independent Bank, said the institution's employees affected by the federal law have already completed the fingerprinting and background checks.

"We've spent a lot of time and effort getting ahead of the game," Smith said Tuesday.

"It gives the consumer a way to hold accountable the loan officer they are working with and the institution they're working with," Smith said. "We're all for that. This is a good thing for the consumer, and that's how you have to gauge these things."

He estimated about 50 employees at IIB were affected.

At STCU, 112 employees were, out of a total workforce of about 450.

The SAFE Act established uniform licensing standards and a national database of mortgage loan originators.

To be registered with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry, the employees submit to the fingerprinting and FBI background checks.

Each mortgage loan originator is given a "unique identifier" number that will follow them for the rest of their careers, at any financial institution where they work on mortgage loans.

Starting July 29, that number must be provided when requested by an applicant, or before a mortgage loan originator begins acting in that capacity with a loan applicant, and on the initial written communications between a mortgage loan originator and a consumer, whether on paper or electronically.

Consumers nationwide will be able to enter a mortgage loan originator's number at www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org to confirm that the person who has access to their financial records is registered. Although mortgage loan originators are fingerprinted only once, the law states that each must renew his or her registration annually.