The leaders lost ground in the broker channel last quarter. The top five lenders reportedly accounted for the lowest combined market share in two years.
That came as mortgage growth is trying to halt its long industry-wide descent.
Here’s a look at individual lender performance in the broker space, in Q1:
| Rank | Broker Channel Lender | Market Share Q1 2019* |
12 Mo Share Change |
| 1 | Scotiabank | 21.6% | -450 bps |
| 2 | MCAP / RMG | 14.3% | -130 bps |
| 3 | First National | 11.9% | -80 bps |
| 4 | TD Canada Trust | 8.4% | -10 bps |
| 5 | Home Trust Company | 6.9% | +140 bps |
| 6 | Street Capital | 6.8% | +160 bps |
| 7 | Equitable Bank | 6.3% | +190 bps |
| 8 | Merix Financial | 5.8% | +80 bps |
| 9 | Desjardins | 3.1% | -10 bps |
| 10 | Manulife Bank | 2.2% | N/C |
The Highlights:
- The #1 lender by volume in the broker world, Scotiabank, fell a whopping 640 bps versus the prior quarter and 450 bps year-over-year. But Scotia’s market share has been volatile, so it’s hard to read a lot into this. So far in Q2, Scotia’s had great rates—especially on three-year terms—so a rebound could be in the cards.
- MCAP/RMG—partly on the back of excellent variable and readvanceable mortgage offers—recaptured the #2 spot from First National.
- First National dropped to third. CEO Stephen Smith told investors, “…Tighter mortgage spreads and a volatile interest rate environment and lower single-family originations produced results that were somewhat disappointing…we saw…B-20 doing what it was intended to do, moderate borrowing activity.” But things may be looking up. Co-founder Moray Tawse said, “Single-family mortgage commitments in March were ahead of 2018 levels by almost 10%.”
- TD posted its lowest market share in two years.
- Home Trust registered its highest market share since its stock collapsed in Q2 2017.
- Street Capital moved up two places to #6 and was just a few dozen deals away from eclipsing Home Trust for the #5 spot. Among other things, “Increased funding and improvements in product pricing have led to higher originations in the prime uninsurable product,” the bank said.
- Equitable achieved its highest market share ever. “Alternative and prime single-family mortgages grew 15% and 48%, respectively,” last quarter, said CEO Andrew Moor. Incidentally, in Q2 Equitable aims to launch a digital signing platform for customer mortgage commitments.
- The growth leader in the quarter was XMC Mortgage, up 342% year-over-year, albeit from a very small base of volume.
- RFA Mortgages was a newcomer on the list. Aggressive rates helped it capture 50 bps of market share virtually overnight, from a tiny and exclusive list of brokers.
- In terms of mortgage activity by province, Alberta saw the largest pickup in volumes, up 2.1% year-over-year, followed by Ontario at +2.0%. B.C., on the other hand, saw volumes tumble 2.7%.
Data Source: Finastra puts out an excellent 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 certain Newton, MortgageBoss or Lendesk volumes (Finastra’s smaller competitors) and leave out a few lenders that Finastra doesn’t report by name, like CMLS Financial.
