AGF Trust and VERICO announced a co-branding partnership on Dec. 8. It’s expected to launch in “early 2011.”

Here are a few details that didn’t make the press release…

• Mario Causarano, President and COO of AGF Trust, calls the deal a “distribution alliance.”
• The partnership will let VERICO brokers sell AGF’s prime and non-prime mortgage products.
• The prime products will be similar to AGF’s Simple Mortgage in rate and features.
• The non-prime mortgages will go up to 80% LTV, include 1st and 2nd mortgages, and come with a trailer fee broker compensation model. (This is quite unique. Lenders don’t usually offer trailer fees on non-prime products. Moreover, AGF’s move into trailer fees now gives competition to Macquarie and Merix Financial, who are the leading lenders with trailer fee models in Canada. AGF might do similar deals with other brokerage firms down the road, but for now trailers are exclusive to VERICO.)
• VERICO COO, John Kelly, says: “AGF has access to both external and internal sources of funding; consequently they have a wider credit box and can approve more VERICO customers. This is a big advantage for our members.”
• Because AGF has a balance sheet, Kelly says there is “potential to launch other ARM / VRM and HELOC-type products as the program matures.”
• Causarano says the deal reflects AGF’s "foray back in the market in a more sustained way.” (Like many lenders, AGF had to pull back on lending during the credit crisis.)

More on VERICO and AGF Trust…

VERICO is a national broker network with over 2,000 mortgage brokers and agents.

AGF Trust is a federally regulated trust company with $3.2 billion in assets (including $1.2 billion in mortgages/secured loans). It offers GICs, term deposits, investment loans and real estate secured loans through financial advisors, mortgage brokers and deposit brokers.

Rob McLister, CMT