Mortgage brokers are becoming all the more important as a distribution channel for lenders. Witness these second-quarter numbers from D+H, for instance:

• Overall broker submissions rocketed up 23.8% year-over-year
• Submission volumes in Ontario exploded to roughly $26 billion from ~$21 billion in Q2 2014.

That Ontario showing is by far the highest in our records (our records of D+H data go back to 2009). B.C., Alberta and Quebec also saw substantial increases. With numbers like this, we’ll be eagerly awaiting CAAMP’s State of the Residential Mortgage Market report this fall, which could show a new record for broker market penetration.

Here’s a look at the reported market share for the top 10 lenders in the broker space, as of the second quarter…

Rank	Lender	Market Share*	12 Mo Change
1	Scotiabank	17.4%	-20 bps
2	First National	15.3%	-280 bps
3	Street Capital	10.3%	+150 bps
4	TD Canada Trust	7.2%	-90 bps
5	MCAP	7.2%	+50 bps
6	Home Trust	6.5%	-320 bps
7	RMG Mortgages	6.3%	+20 bps
8	Merix Financial	6.0%	+140 bps
9	National Bank	3.8%	-60 bps
10	Equitable Bank	3.1%	+50 bps

 

Quick takes:

• Much of the quarter’s volume growth was originated through non-top-10 lenders, like B2B Bank (+150 bps), Canadiana Financial and others.
• MCAP and its RMG Mortgages division, combined, amount to the #3 lender in the broker channel with 13.5% share. Their restricted products (ValueFlex and Low Rate Basic) remain highly popular.
• Home Trust continued its slide in the second quarter, likely on the back of volume losses from the 45 brokers it cut off.
• As a group, mortgage banks increased their market share 1.1% in the quarter, while the non-conforming lenders lost 1.2%.
• The split of variable-rate mortgages fell to around 25% by the end of June, down from a nearly three-year high of approximately 28% in March.

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• Data 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 third-party sources and have quoted it here. The data above is not confirmed, but is believed reliable. Note: These market share figures do not count MorWeb volumes (D+H’s smaller competitor).