The volume of mortgages closed by brokers dropped 4.2% in the first quarter, versus Q1 2011.

Interestingly though, the dollar volume of applications submitted in the first quarter rose 19.6%. We’ll see if that leads to a strong Q2, or if it’s reflective of higher-than-normal cancellations.

The above data comes from Davis + Henderson’s latest lender market share report. Below are the first-quarter performances from the top 10 lenders in the broker market.

The Big 5

1)  Scotiabank (SMA) 
18.7% market share, +1.7 ppsYOY
FirstLine brokers looking for a new home found one in Scotia. Scotia Mortgage Authority gained 2.4 pps of share from Q4 2011, despite merely average pricing.

2)  First National
14.6% market share, +2.2 pps YOY
First National benefited from FirstLine’s losses as well, and remained in second position. Its status broker 10-year rate was tops in the channel next to ING’s.

3)  Street Capital
8.1% share, +4.1 pps YOY
Despite canning its rental and conventional equity/stated income products, Street found a way to notch out a huge relative share gain. Street had one of the best 4-year promos in Q1 for “Loyalty” brokers.

4)  FirstLine Mortgages
7.8% share, –9.9 pps YOY
As the industry awaits word on who FirstLine’s new owner will be, it continues to shrivel. FirstLine has shed almost 10 percentage points of market share in the past year, largely because of horrendous pricing (which appears intentional as CIBC tries to wind down FirstLine’s book).

5)  TD Bank
7.4% share, -4.7 pps YOY
TD has taken a surprising step back in its broker business. For one thing, it handicapped its conventional stated income program with new rules. In addition, its collateral charge mortgages continue to have a bad rep in the broker channel.

The Balance of the Top 10

6)  Home Trust
6.4% share, –1.7 pps YOY
Home dropped one spot to sixth, but acquired 0.6 pps of share versus Q4 2011.

7)  MCAP
6.3% share, +0.6 pps YOY
MCAP fell another notch to 7th spot. It still hasn’t closed its acquisition of ResMor’s mortgage business, but it does reportedly have a new multi-billion dollar long-term funding deal with BMO. That should help broaden MCAP’s product offerings and/or improve pricing.

8)  National Bank of Canada
5.3% share, +1.8 pps YOY
NBC has seen terrific momentum in the last year or so, but that momentum has been largely based on below-market pricing. Its Q1 rates were not in the same league. Specifically, NBC’s prime + 0.75% All-in-One has been a tough sell with numerous competitors at prime + 0.50%.

9)  Merix Financial
3.9% share, +1.7 pps YOY
Merix jumped one rank to #9 with a solid 1-year share gain, despite largely average pricing.

10)  ING Direct
2.9% share, -0.4 pps YOY
ING  launched a new HELOC but still slipped from 9th to 10th. Its 10-year fixed was (and continues to be) the best in the market, but there wasn’t much else to write home about on the rate front. ING also axed its conventional “low-doc” mortgage program. On the plus side, ING imposes no rate surcharges for rental deals, and is one of few lenders left with 35-year conventional amortizations.

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Source: D+H puts out a terrific, non-public report called Lender Insights, which compiles lender market share data in the mortgage broker industry. We receive data from that report via 3rd party sources and have quoted it here. This data is not confirmed, but is believed reliable.

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Rob McLister, CMT