Written by 6:44 PM Mortgage Industry News • 17 Comments Views: 145

CIBC’s Two Broker Exceptions

CIBC-BankWith the closure of FirstLine Mortgages, CIBC has dramatically cut back on mortgage distribution through brokers.

But CIBC is still dealing with brokers. It does so through two wholly owned broker subsidiaries: Home Loans Canada (HLC) and Mortgage Centre Canada (MCC).

So far, CIBC has not publicly announced changes to either of these companies, despite its clear preference to distribute mortgages through its internal sales force. (See: CIBC…FirstLine Sale)

HLCIn the case of HLC, it provides CIBC an important outsourcing option when a mortgage client doesn’t “fit the box” for a CIBC-branded mortgage.

HLC receives mortgage applications from all levels of CIBC including referrals from branches, Mortgage Advisors (road reps), Imperial Service Advisors, online channels, and call centres. CIBC Mortgage Advisors are even compensated for referring deals to HLC. From what we understand, all they have to do is flip a client’s CIBC application to HLC internally.

This one-stop service option gives CIBC Mortgage Advisors an edge over other banks’ sales forces, who don’t have a full-service internal brokerage to refer to.

(RBC has a somewhat similar model with its Alternative Mortgage Solutions [AMS] operation, which routes deals to a variety of non-bank lenders when RBC can’t approve a client for credit or pricing reasons.)

Mortgage-Centre-Mortgage-BrokersIn the case of Mortgage Centre, from the information we have, it appears that MCC was offered for sale earlier this year in connection with the FirstLine sale. But we haven’t heard any indication that it’s on the block currently, despite numerous overtures from interested competitors.

For now, it is business as usual and CIBC says that MCC brokers will continue to be able to sell CIBC branded mortgages after the July 31 FirstLine closing. As long as MCC is part of CIBC, that’s not expected to change.

According to MCC President Eddy Cocciollo, “Starting August 1st, MCC is the only broker offering three of Canada’s (five major) banks. Everyone else can only offer two.”

MCC has other initiatives on the go as well, including:

  • Full-scale rollout of an unsecured CIBC line of credit product
  • Launching of the MCC Client Communicator (automated client communications emails)
  • Launching of MCC Client Connect (a new CRM program)
  • A new website in September
  • New status clubs for recognition of volume achievements
  • A January 14-17, 2013 National Conference in Riviera Maya, Mexico

 


Rob McLister, CMT

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Last modified: April 26, 2017

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