The Idaho Department of Finance will expand its use of a nationwide licensing portal to include the money transmission industry.

Effective Sept. 1, the department is accepting money-transmitter license applications and related information through the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry, or NMLS. Until now in Idaho, the system was available only to the more than 4,000 financial institutions, businesses and professionals involved in the mortgage industry.

Money transmitters include companies like Western Union, Paypal, Google, Amazon, Keefe Commissary Network (for prison inmate accounts), and Square Inc.

Consumers have long used money transmitters to send money to friends and family in foreign countries. More recently, transmitters have facilitated payments for online purchases and other electronic transactions, including prepaid access products.

There now are 65 licensed money transmitters in Idaho that operate through 2,650 Idaho agents. Over the past five years, the volume of money transmission business done in Idaho has ranged from $1.9 billion to $4.8 billion per year.

“This expansion is just the first of what the department hopes will be continued growth in online licensing through NMLS of financial service companies doing business in Idaho,” department Director Gavin Gee said. “As a nationwide system, NMLS brings efficiencies and improves oversight of these businesses by state regulators through better information sharing. For many firms, this will move them one step closer to ‘one stop filing’ for multi-state licensing, as well as improve information available to consumers.”

NMLS began operations Jan. 2, 2008, and 58 state agencies and six federal agencies now use the system to satisfy licensing or registration requirements nationally for 657,000 mortgage companies, financial institutions and mortgage professionals.

The department said NMLS is a secure, Web-based nationwide licensing system managed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators. It allows companies and individuals to apply for and maintain their licenses in one or more states conveniently and safely online.

Use of NMLS by money transmitters is voluntary. For more information about NMLS, visit http://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/Pages/default.aspx.