New licensing classes at the moment are in impact for all Ontario brokers and brokers who wish to prepare personal mortgages.
Beneath the brand new licensing system launched by the Monetary Companies Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), brokers and brokers wanting to rearrange each personal mortgages and investments for personal buyers and mortgage lenders would require a “degree 2” licence.
These with a “degree 1” licence can be restricted to arranging mortgages with monetary establishments or CMHC-approved lenders beneath the Nationwide Housing Act.
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What’s behind the adjustments?
The licensing revamp is a results of a Ministry of Finance directive that took place following a 2019 report that checked out learn how to enhance dealer and agent licensing in Ontario to “higher reply to the distinctive practices required by sure segments of the mortgage market.”
It was decided that these working with personal mortgage lenders and people elevating capital “require a particular set of competencies,” which the brand new necessities got down to tackle.
“The brand new necessities will assist guarantee shoppers and buyers obtain acceptable mortgage recommendation and product suggestions when coping with personal mortgages,” FSRA stated in its materials for mortgage professionals.
Katie Caravaggio, Mortgage Professionals Canada’s Director of Schooling, stated the brand new licensing system will guarantee mortgage professionals coping with personal mortgages have a strong understanding of the intricacies of those particular merchandise.
“It was discovered that some licensees who had been dealing in personal mortgages could not have been sufficiently educated, or not less than weren’t acquainted with the particular end-to-end course of concerned with a majority of these mortgages,” she stated.
“The primary consequence right here can be client safety, making certain that brokers and brokers have intensive data of the merchandise they’re coping with in order that they’ll present the correct service to their shoppers,” she added.
“There are components that have to be thought-about when coping with personal mortgages that the dealer or agent want to debate with the shopper,” she stated.
This may embrace speaking about an exit technique with the borrower, since personal mortgages are usually shorter-term loans, and sometimes for individuals who can’t qualify at a standard lender. Caravaggio the mortgage skilled would additionally need to disclose dangers to the borrower and ensure they’re conscious of any sort of further charges.
“These are actually necessary components, and the mortgage skilled must be assured of their understanding of them as a way to correctly advise shoppers,” she stated.
As soon as totally applied, any brokers or brokers discovered participating in personal mortgage brokering with out the suitable licence might lead to penalties starting from a warning to licence situations or in the end licence suspension, FSRA says.
Methods to full your re-licensing
Each the Non-public Mortgages Course and the problem examination can be found by way of three FSRA-approved suppliers, together with Mortgage Professionals Canada.
Caravaggio says the affiliation has labored intently with FSRA to create the course content material and develop the problem examination.
“They offered us with the educational goals and subjects that they needed us to debate, after which we as an affiliation collaborated with our very skilled, very tenured subject-matter consultants,” she stated.
The course materials covers the whole lot from an introduction to the transaction course of when arranging personal mortgages, procedures to observe when working with the borrower and the lender/investor, and finest practices to detect and stop mortgage fraud.
“A continued emphasis on ‘know-your-client’ and product suitability will permit for extra understanding of what the shopper wants and fewer situations of shoppers being put into mortgages that might not be the correct match for them,” Caravaggio says. “We are going to proceed to deal with client safety, which in flip will can solely strengthen the notion of the trade to shoppers. Extra training = extra legitimacy.”
The course additionally contains materials on trade ethics and the Mortgage Dealer Regulators’ Council of Canada Code of Conduct.
The 30-hour course is on the market each just about in addition to in-person. Registration for the course is $299 for MPC members and $349 for non-members.
Who must take the course?
Re-licensing beneath the brand new program can be necessary for all mortgage brokers who wish to be licensed in Ontario and should be accomplished by March 31, 2024.
Nonetheless, brokers with not less than 5 consecutive years of expertise can try the problem examination with out finishing the Non-public Mortgage Course. They’ll have one try on the examination, in any other case can be required to take the course.
For mortgage brokers, the course is simply required for individuals who wish to deal in personal mortgages. On this case, they would wish to finish the Non-public Mortgage course to attain the Stage 2 designation, so long as they’ve 12 months of expertise during the last 24 months as a Stage 1 mortgage agent.

For added particulars, please go to mortgageproscan.ca/training or contact Schooling@mpc.ca
Key dates
Listed below are the important thing dates to bear in mind when planning your re-licensing:
- April 1, 2023: New licensing courses got here into power
As of April 1, 2023, mortgage brokers and brokers can be issued the mortgage agent degree 1, degree 2, and dealer licences, primarily based on specified necessities. Present licensees can be issued a brand new licence as a part of the 2023 licensing renewal cycle.
- October 31, 2023: Deadline to finish the Problem Examination
Eligible people who select to finish the Problem Examination should move the examination by October 31, 2023.
- March 31, 2024: Ultimate date to finish the Non-public Mortgages Course
Mortgage agent degree 2 and mortgage brokers should full the Non-public Mortgages Course and apply to resume their licence earlier than March 31, 2024. Licensees who don’t meet the training necessities will routinely be transitioned to the mortgage agent degree 1 licence upon renewing their licence.
This text was first printed in Views journal.