TD has moved to consolidate BDM services for its prime and alternative lending divisions – something brokers are worried could cost them future business.
TD has moved to consolidate BDM services for its prime and alternative lending divisions – something brokers are worried could cost them future business.
“Currently the two (divisions) are completely divided,” Michael Marini, a mortgage agent with Dominion Lending Centres Funds in Toronto, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “I’m concerned that with the consolidation, we will eventually see TD Broker Services try to bypass brokers and take our TD Financing Services clients once they can qualify for prime borrowing.”
Effective immediately, the sales teams of TD Broker Services and TD Financing Services will come together, forming a group of 22 regional sales managers, according to a letter sent to brokers Monday.
“The newly combined team will represent both prime and near-prime products to the broker community and be well-positioned to provide strong service to our broker relationships by offering an integrated sales support experience through one point of contact,” Mohammed Nakhooda, a senior manager of TD corporate affairs, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca last Friday. “TD Broker Services and TD Financing Services remain as separate business lines within TD Canada Trust. Each business will continue to maintain its respective underwriting and process procedures.”
That last point may serve to allay the concerns of brokers who’ve arranged mortgages for Alt-A and B clients at TD Financing Services, but have had little to no relationship with the bank’s A lending facility. Their alternative business often translates into deals to arrange A mortgages for those same clients, once they're able to qualify for prime loans.
Marini and other brokers counting on that lucrative work are worried TD’s move to knock down the wall between BDM teams at TD Financing and Broker Services will eventually get extended to underwriters.
Their fear is actually twofold: not only are they concerned TD will poach B clients once they become ready for prime mortgages, but also that brokers using TD Financing will be pressured to send prime business to TD Broker Services in order to preserve their relationship with TD Financing.
TD Financing , itself the product of corporate consolidation, represents a merger of the big bank’s Indirect Lending unit with VFC Inc. – an alternative lender TD acquired in 2006. Marini wants to see that amalgamated Alt-A/B lender maintain an arms-length relationship with TD Broker Services. Still, he has his doubts.
“I don’t know how long it will stay that way,” Marini told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
