The Florida Office of Financial Regulation will stop taking applications for mortgage licenses on July 8 as it overhauls the background screening system to look for criminal records and credit history.

The changes apply to mortgage brokers, mortgage brokerage businesses, mortgage lenders and correspondent mortgage lenders. Applications submitted by July 8 will be processed before Oct. 1, the date the new application screening system launches.

OFR has required that all individuals and companies with mortgage licenses must reapply for licensure by Dec. 31.

Regulators will conduct state and federal criminal federal background checks and pull credit reports in an effort to “raise the bar higher.”

They will consider bankruptcies, tax liens, outstanding judgments, foreclosures and charged off accounts as factors in licensure.

Applicants must demonstrate “character, general fitness and financial responsibility” before getting or renewing a license, the OFR said.

The Miami Herald criticized the OFR in a series of stories called “Borrowers Betrayed” that detailed how people with extensive criminal histories were granted licenses as mortgage brokers. It included cases where brokers with questionable pasts were accused of committing mortgage fraud.

“We encourage applicants to apply now so that they have a better chance of being approved before October 1,” OFR Commissioner Tom Cardwell said in a news release. “If unlicensed by this date, individuals will not be able to work in the industry until the new application is approved. Applicants should submit information that is complete, correct and containing full disclosure to minimize delays to processing their application.”

OFR spokeswoman Flora Beal said the additional work would be done in-house with five new positions.

Her office will be especially busy because mortgage licensees must now renew their licenses annually with criminal background credits and credit reports, instead of every two years without repeated background checks.