Out of sick fascination with train wrecks, what is their stated intention or justification?
As per the CNBC article linked from the Malkin article, well... they never really say as far as I can tell. Vague hints of "for your safety" and "because those are the rules of the new S.A.F.E. act, so there!"
Interesting that the article mentions "it has thinned the ranks of mortgage brokers". It being both the fingerprints and some new test they have to apparently take to be certified. As mentioned above, there should be some standard to weed out crooks, but I suspect the real crooks are smart enough to get past the tests.