Last reviewed: 16 September 2026

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How Quebec regulates mortgage brokers: the AMF's courtier hypothécaire framework

Our overview of Canadian mortgage broker regulation notes that Quebec licenses mortgage brokers — called courtiers hypothécaires — through the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the same integrated regulator that licenses Quebec insurance representatives. Quebec's path to that AMF certificate has its own structure, and it's a relatively recent one.

Oversight moved to the AMF in 2020 — it wasn't always there

Before May 1, 2020, mortgage brokerage in Quebec was supervised by the Organisme d'autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ) — the province's real estate self-regulatory body, not a financial-services regulator. A 2018 amendment to Quebec's Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services moved supervision of mortgage brokerage to the AMF, effective May 1, 2020, requiring anyone practicing as a courtier hypothécaire to hold an AMF-issued certificate rather than an OACIQ credential. This is a materially different — and more recent — regulatory history than Ontario, BC, or Alberta, where mortgage brokerage has long sat with a dedicated or integrated financial-services regulator rather than a real estate body.

Getting certified: training, an exam, then a supervised probationary period

A prospective courtier hypothécaire must first complete specialized training through an AMF-recognized training body under the Mortgage Brokerage Qualification Program (MBQP) curriculum, then pass the AMF's mortgage brokerage sector exam. Passing the exam doesn't itself produce a certificate — the candidate then completes a supervised probationary period at a mortgage brokerage firm, under a designated supervising representative, before applying to the AMF for the certificate that actually authorizes practice. This supervised-probation structure has no direct equivalent in Ontario's, BC's, or Alberta's licensing paths, none of which require a formal post-exam internship before full licensing.

The probationary period itself is being changed, effective September 14, 2026

Under the AMF's current rules, the probationary period runs a fixed 12 weeks at a minimum of 28 hours per week — 336 hours in total. Effective September 14, 2026, the AMF is restructuring how that same 336-hour total can be scheduled: the fixed 12-week, 28-hour-per-week structure is replaced with a more flexible window of up to 24 weeks, capped at 40 hours per week rather than held to a fixed weekly floor, and the maximum number of trainees a single supervising representative may oversee (where supervision is that person's primary responsibility) rises from five to ten. Probationary-period applications submitted before September 14, 2026 continue under the old fixed-schedule rules; applications submitted from that date get the new flexibility. The total training-hour requirement itself isn't being reduced — only how it can be scheduled and supervised. A reader checking a Quebec mortgage broker's credential around this date should be aware the underlying training-path mechanics changed then, even though the certificate requirement itself did not.

Continuing education after certification

Once certified, a courtier hypothécaire must complete mandatory continuing-education modules on a recurring AMF professional-development cycle — the current cycle runs May 1, 2026 through April 30, 2028 — a different cadence again from Ontario's two-year FSRA cycle and Alberta's annual RECA renewal (see our companion explainers on Ontario's continuing education requirement and Alberta's licensing tiers, linked below).