A Senate committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 99, the Residential Mortgage Loan Amendments, to the Senate floor.

Representative Binion introduced the bill and said it targets "trigger leads," where a consumer's mortgage credit inquiry leads to the sale of that consumer's contact information to competing lenders or brokers. Lauren Patterson, government affairs chair for the Utah Mortgage Professionals Association, told the committee the practice raises privacy and fraud risks and that the revenue generated by the data-sale industry is large: "the amount of revenue that's generated by 1 of the bureaus, believe it or not, is in excess of $30,000,000,000 annually just on this alone." Patterson said the bill does not ban trigger leads outright but sets protocols and enforcement steps and would give the Division of Real Estate and the mortgage commission tools to enforce standards.

Committee members asked about competition and consumer choice; witnesses said the bill preserves consumer options while adding guardrails to protect privacy and reduce misleading solicitations. The committee moved the bill with a favorable recommendation; Senator Kwan moved to pass HB 99 out of committee and the motion carried unanimously.