Last reviewed: 16 September 2026
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How Canadian mortgage broker regulation actually works
Everything else in this Library describes the US system: a single Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, one NMLS ID per originator, a single federally-mandated public lookup. Canada doesn't work that way at all — there is no national mortgage regulator, no single license, and no single lookup tool that shows a broker's standing across the whole country. Here's the structure that actually exists, province by province.
No federal license, no federal database
Mortgage brokering is regulated provincially in Canada, not federally. Each province runs its own licensing regime for mortgage brokers and agents, under its own mortgage brokers act, through its own regulator. There is no Canadian counterpart to the NMLS — no single ID tied to one individual that aggregates their licensing status across every province, and no single public search box that returns a nationwide result. Checking a Canadian mortgage broker means knowing which specific province issued their license, then using that province's own tool.
Who actually licenses mortgage brokers, by major province
- Ontario — the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), a provincial Crown agency, licenses all mortgage brokers, agents, brokerages, and administrators — a mandatory requirement for dealing or trading in mortgages in Ontario. FSRA is the same regulator that separately licenses life and single-insurer general insurance agents in Ontario, though mortgage brokering and insurance are licensed as distinct categories under it.
- British Columbia — the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) licenses mortgage brokers directly and operates a public licensee search covering license status, license type, and any conditions or disciplinary actions. BCFSA is also BC's integrated regulator for insurance and several other financial sectors.
- Alberta — mortgage brokerage in Alberta is licensed through the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA), which maintains a public registry searchable by name or license number — the same body that licenses real estate professionals in the province, reflecting Alberta's choice to regulate mortgage brokering alongside real estate rather than alongside insurance.
- Quebec — mortgage brokering (called "mortgage brokerage" activity under Quebec's own framework) is regulated by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the same financial-markets regulator that licenses insurance representatives in the province — Quebec's pattern of centralizing registration through the AMF, seen elsewhere in its financial-sector regulation, extends to mortgage brokering as well.
Most other provinces and territories maintain their own licensing regime as well, generally through a government financial-services office or a delegated council, broadly mirroring the pattern seen in each province's insurance regulation — see our deep-dives on New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The one genuine exception is Prince Edward Island, which has no mortgage-broker-specific licensing law or regulator at all.
Licensing requirements generally, across provinces
While the specific regulator and application process differ by province, most require: completing an approved pre-licensing education course, passing a licensing exam, a criminal background check, and — commonly — errors and omissions (E&O) insurance and, in some provinces, a bonding requirement, broadly similar in structure to the US state bonding/net-worth requirements our own standard checks (see our standard, point 8) for US originators. A specific province's current requirements should always be verified directly against that province's own regulator rather than assumed from another province's rules.