Equity Financial Trust’s decision to focus on mortgages has been a good move, with the release of its second quarter numbers hinting at the growing popularity of B business in the wake of ever-tightening lending rules.
Equity Financial Trust’s decision to focus on mortgages has been a good move, with the release of its second quarter numbers hinting at the growing popularity of B business in the wake of ever-tightening lending rules.
“I think it’s a massive market: The residential mortgage market in Canada recently hit the $1.2 trillion mark,” Equity Financial Trust CEO Nick Kyprianou told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “We focus on alternative lending, which accounts for 2-20 per cent of that and there aren’t a lot of players in the space.
“We think, because of our customer service and broker focus, that there is a tremendous amount of runway for us for years to come.”
Equity Financial Trust reported $72,662,000 in mortgage originations for the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 79 per cent from the year-ago period.
The company sold its transfer agent business earlier this year to focus on mortgage and deposit business.
“Management continues to believe the most attractive opportunities are available to us under our mortgage and deposit-taking business and realizing on the inherent value of our transfer agent and corporate trust business allowed us to allocate our resources accordingly," Equity President & CEO Paul G. Smith said in the Q2 statement.
And if the most recent numbers are any indication, Equity Financial poised for more growth this year as more Canadians look to move before a projected rise in interest rates.
"Our second quarter mortgage originations of nearly $73 million was a new record for us,” Kyprianou said. “We are pleased with the pace of our mortgage originations for the year to date and our expectation is that by the end of 2013 our mortgage loan portfolio will have expanded 80 per cent to 90 per cent compared to the balance at the end of 2012."
Kyprianou points to the company’s focus on customer service as a major reason for its growing success.
“Things are going extremely well; brokers enjoy dealing with us and we’re very focused on service,” he said. “We take the time to explain to the broker how to make the deal work and, if it’s a ‘no,’ we explain why.”
Early responses from brokers in CMP’s Brokers on Lenders survey point to the growing popularity of alternative lenders, with more brokers looking to include those lenders in their rankings and evaluations.
The newly expanded Brokers on Lenders survey remains open until Friday, August 23. Click here to participate.
