Street Capital Adds Prime

Street Capital has diversified its mortgage offerings by adding prime insured mortgages to its subprime lending mix.

Street's prime products will initially be available only through mortgage planners in Ontario, BC, and Alberta.  In a release the company said: "Street Capital is a strong advocate of the mortgage broker origination channel and believes that the expertise and advantage a mortgage agent brings to the consumer is fundamental."

Street is using CMHC as its mortgage insurer and is launching the new products with fairly competitive pricing (within 20 basis points of the deepest discounters in some cases). The company is also offering various broker incentives and promotions.

Street's announcement comes in the steps of other lenders who've made similar moves in recent months, namely MyNext and Xceed.  All of them are now trying to capture share in the increasingly competitive, decreasingly profitable, "A-market."

On the subprime front, the company is tightening up its pricing somewhat.  This basically reflects the liquidity risks and "customer risks" currently associated with this segment. Street's "Alternative Mortgage Lending Program" approval guidelines remain unchanged.