Dominion Lending Centres’ purchase of The Mortgage Centre (MCC) from CIBC represents “a commitment to the mortgage broker space,” says DLC president Gary Mauris.
Dominion Lending Centres’ purchase of The Mortgage Centre (MCC) from CIBC represents “a commitment to the mortgage broker space,” says DLC president Gary Mauris.
“There’s a real opportunity here for us,” says Mauris. “We’ve spent a ton of money buying MCC, and we’re gonna put a lot more money into it. We’re gonna knock this one out of the park.”
Mauris told MortgageBrokerNews.ca that MCC will continue to operate as an independent brand, and this purchase will not affect the day-to-day operations of MCC or DLC.
“This gives us just under $20 billion in collective volume,” he said. “DLC already has a strong presence throughout Canada, and now with MCC, it gives us an even stronger market share.”
MCC is an iconic Canadian brand consisting of 90 franchises operating out of 160 locations across the country with 1,133 mortgage professionals. In 2012, MCC successfully funded more than $6.9 billion in mortgage volume.
Everyone currently working at MCC will be offered their position, Mauris says, and he's eager to implement his vision for a new white-label product, CRM program and website.
“We have already met with the MCC team this morning and are working to keep the MCC head office team intact going forward,” says Mauris. “The ongoing support of (MCC) agents isn’t owed to us; we’re going to earn that respect.”
DLC’s negotiations for the purchase of MCC began in early March, after CIBC signalled it was focusing on in-house reps and potentially a more profitable mortgage business. The big bank had closed up shop on its broker lending arm FirstLine last year.
When rumours began swirling around the potential sale of MCC a few weeks ago, Radius Financial (Pacific Mortgage Group) had been cited as the company looking to purchase, along with DLC.
For Mauris, the purchase of MCC was worth every penny – even if the pricetag was more than he had expected.
“We probably overpaid for it,” says Mauris, “but that represents what the MCC brand means to us. MCC runs a really, really good group of quality owners, and we are very happy to have them on board.”
