Last reviewed: 16 September 2026
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How to check a Canadian mortgage broker's license
Unlike the US, where NMLS Consumer Access gives you one starting point regardless of which state licensed the originator (see our US guide), Canada requires knowing the specific province first — see our companion explainer on how Canadian mortgage broker regulation is structured for why. Once you know the province, though, each one publishes a real, free, public lookup.
Step 1: get the province and the exact legal name
Ask directly which province issued the license, and for the person's full legal name — a license is issued to a specific name in a specific province, the same as in the US. Someone brokering mortgages in more than one province generally needs a separate, active license in each one they actually operate in, so confirm which province applies to your actual transaction, not just where the broker's office happens to be.
Step 2: use that province's own lookup tool
- Ontario: FSRA's mortgage brokering licensee search.
- British Columbia: BCFSA's public licensee search covers mortgage brokers alongside BC's other regulated financial-services categories.
- Alberta: the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA)'s public registry, searchable by name or license number.
- Quebec: the AMF's public register of firms and individuals authorized to practice, which covers mortgage brokerage activity alongside the other categories the AMF regulates.
- Newfoundland and Labrador: the Superintendent of Mortgage Brokerages and Brokers, within Digital Government and Service NL — see our NL licensing explainer for the current framework.
- Prince Edward Island: there is no lookup, because there is no provincial mortgage broker license in PEI at all — see our explainer on that regulatory gap for what still applies instead.
- Other provinces and territories: each of the remaining provinces already covered on this Library maintains its own regulator or delegated office for mortgage brokering — contact that province's financial-services regulator directly if you're not sure which body applies.
Each of these is free and doesn't require the broker's consent to search, the same as checking a US originator through NMLS Consumer Access — you generally just need a name.
What a clean result does and doesn't tell you
An active Canadian provincial mortgage broker license confirms the person is currently authorized to broker mortgages in that specific province — nothing more. It says nothing about the interest rate or terms you'll actually be offered (a separate question), and a license from any Canadian province is a wholly separate credential from a US NMLS license — the two countries' systems don't recognize each other's licenses at all, so a broker licensed in Ontario has no automatic authorization to originate a loan in Michigan, or vice versa.
If you're checking whether a license held in one Canadian province lets someone broker mortgages in another, see our companion page on reciprocity between provinces — the honest answer is more nuanced than a flat yes or no.