My Virtual BDM - Mortgage Industry News List

If you are looking for the list of finalists for the 2015 Canadian Mortgage Awards, here you go! Hoping the WIMI Group wins The Centum Financial Group Award For Best Industry Service Provider.

There's another set of mortgage rules coming this summer. CMHC sent out a notice recently with implementation dates for three policies related to OSFI's B-21 guideline. We knew this stuff was coming but these rules could nonetheless make it harder to get low-ratio insured variable-rate mortgages, self-employed mortgages and 100% financing.

Every contract can be different, but here are two main formulas for estimating the size of your mortgage penalties if you break it early. Be sure to check with your lender to see what your exact penalty would be, or if you even have one.

As Canadians rack up credit at a record pace, a new type of lender - with a technological twist - is emerging as yet another borrowing option. Positioning themselves as an alternative to more traditional, high-interest options, online loan providers - commonly referred to as peer-to-peer lenders - are looking to shake up Canada's consumer-lending business in the way travel website Expedia.ca and mobile taxi application Uber transformed their industries.

First-quarter market share data is in and the numbers are strong. Volumes in the mortgage broker channel are up 21% from the same time last year, according to D+H data provided by sources. The split of variable-rate mortgages increased noticeably as well, to roughly 28% of brokered mortgages at the end of March.

Most homeowners don't know what a "covered bond" is. But they'd probably be happy to hear that covered bonds help lower mortgage rates (indirectly) and provide borrowers with more options. The following is a look at the growing Canadian covered bond market and what it means to everyday borrowers and lenders.

Yours may be a match made in heaven, but what if your new spouse is in debt and you're not? Here's how to prevent it from derailing your future happiness. For better or worse, richer or poorer: When you exchanged those vows with your spouse at the altar, you probably weren't thinking about credit scores, savings accounts or how much debt your new partner might have.

An email from National Bank promising commissions for Realtors who bring referrals directly to a branch will likely upset its broker partners. "From the standpoint of supporting someone and then finding out that they're going over your head or trying to cut into your business it just doesn't make sense," Mark Fidgett of Verico NotaPennyDown told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.