Canadian Mortgage Lenders – Our Top 20

Worried that working with a mortgage broker will cause you to end up with a mortgage lender you’ve never heard of, and don’t know anything about? I get that question every so often, so I’m guessing some of you might be concerned about this too. So, here’s an overview of the 20 mortgage lenders we most often use. For each lender below, you can click on their name to get more information at their own websites.

How do we choose?

Once I have a good understanding of my client’s financial situation, I will have a short list of mainstream lenders or alternative lenders that are likely to be appropriate in helping fit my client’s needs. From there, we discuss the pros and cons of several alternative choices. On the mainstream side, we’ll talk about things like whether the lender has a branch network, what their pre-payment privileges are and how they work, what the penalties are should you pay the mortgage out earlier than your contract date, what their customer service is like, and, of course, the rate. On the alternative side, we also go into things like how much of a down payment the lender will request, how attuned they are to financial circumstances like yours, what types of properties they’ll work with, and how easily you can transition from them to a mainstream lender. Together, we decide which of the options will be the best fit.

Also check out “Why mortgage brokers like monoline lenders (and you should, too!)”

Our 20 most commonly used mortgage lenders

1. First National

First National is Canada’s largest non bank lender of single family residential mortgages, commercial mortgages and multi family mortgages.

2. Scotiabank

The Bank of Nova Scotia, commonly known as Scotiabank, is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization.

3. Home Trust

Home Trust is one of Canada’s leading trust companies and a wholly owned subsidiary of Home Capital Group. They offer common sense lending via Mortgage and Visa credit cards, as well as offering deposit products.

4. MCAP

MCAP is a Canadian mortgage company based in Toronto. They have offices across Canada and administer over $35 billion in mortgages.

5. TD Canada Trust

TD Canada Trust is the personal, small business and commercial banking operation of the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Canada, one of Canada’s five biggest banks (and on a personal note, it’s where I started my financial services career).

6. Equitable Bank

Equitable Bank is a federally regulated Schedule I Bank with total assets of approximately $12 billion. They fund mortgages for owner-occupied and investment properties across Canada as well as a variety of commercial properties on a national basis.

7. B2B Bank (Laurentian Bank)

B2B Bank is a Schedule 1 bank, and the wholly owned subsidiary and mortgage lending arm of Laurentian Bank. B2B Bank also acquired and now owns the former lender AGF Trust.

8. National Bank

The National Bank of Canada is the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada. It is headquartered in Montreal, and has branches in most Canadian provinces.

9. Partner Mortgage

Partner Mortgage is our own white label product, offered through a partnership with one of our lenders. With Partner Mortgage, we can often offer phenomenal rates, while maintaining a lot of the bells and whistles you’d expect with all the best mortgages.

10. Street Capital

Street Capital Financial is Canada’s 3rd largest non-bank lender providing residential mortgages through select independent mortgage brokers.

11. First Ontario Credit Union

FirstOntario Credit Union began in Stoney Creek in 1939 as the Stelco Credit Union. Today, it serves more than 100,000 members in Ontario.

12. CMLS Financial

CMLS Financial is one of Canada’s largest, independently owned mortgage services companies. Founded in 1974, they are now celebrating 40 years in business and oversee more than $10 billion in assets.

13. Wealthline

WealthLine mortgages are another product available exclusively through Invis mortgage brokers and agents. WealthLine Mortgages are arranged through Paradigm Quest Inc., an experienced player in the Canadian mortgage industry that works with domestic and international capital market partners to fund several billion dollars in mortgage transactions. Currently, Paradigm Quest has over 18 billion dollars in assets under management.

14. RMG Mortgages

RMG Mortgages is a division of MCAP, and is known for its “no frills”, deeply discounted products, as well as niche products such as the 35 year amortization mortgage.

15. Meridian Credit Union

Meridian is of the 10 largest credit unions in Canada, serving greater Toronto; Bruce, Simcoe, and Grey counties; and York and Durham regions.

16. Optimum Mortgage

Optimum Mortgage is a division of Canadian Western Trust, and Canadian Western Bank Group. Canadian Western Bank is the largest publicly traded Canadian bank headquartered in Western Canada, with combined balance sheet assets of over $18 billion. Optimum Mortgage is a full service lender, providing personalized lending solutions and a variety of products, including flexible alternative solutions for clients who may not fit within traditional guidelines.

17. Equity Financial Trust Company

Equity Financial Trust Company is a federally chartered trust company providing mortgage and deposit services. They are an alternative mortgage lender that strives to provide common-sense and out-of-the-box thinking in looking at every situation.

18. Duca Credit Union

Duca Financial Services Credit Union offers a full range of financial services at its branches throughout the greater Toronto area.

19. MERIX Financial

MERIX Financial is a Canadian owned Prime Mortgage Lender that partners exclusively with qualified mortgage brokers across Canada. They currently have over $12 billion in assets under management.

20. Alterna Savings

Alterna Savings & Credit Union Ltd. is a Canadian credit union, formed in 2005 by the merger of CS CO-OP and Metro Credit Union, which provides full daily banking services, loans and mortgages, investment services and business banking. Alterna has branches in Toronto, Kingston, North Bay, Pembroke, Ottawa and Gatineau.

What makes up the rest?

We do have a number of other mortgage lenders that we would use in specific circumstances – private lenders, niche institutional lenders, and the like – which are too numerous to outline here.  (I assume you’ll only be interested in those if they apply to you!)

Please get in touch if you want to discuss any of these further. There’s never any fee or obligation!

Cheers…

 

Image credit: [c] Stuart Miles for freedigitalphotos.net