Concerns among brokers that Xceed will go the way of ING and FirstLine following MCAN’s announced takeover can be put to rest, says CEO Michael Jones.
Concerns among brokers that Xceed will go the way of ING and FirstLine following MCAN’s announced takeover can be put to rest, says CEO Michael Jones.
“I do think it is going to be a positive for mortgage brokers,” says Xceed’s Jones, who cautions the deal has yet to be voted on by the company’s shareholders. “It’s still early days, but brokers shouldn’t worry about us suddenly disappearing from the channel. If you read the press release from MCAN, they specifically say that they acquired Xceed to add scale to their business, like our origination capability on single-family mortgages.”
In that announcement last week, MCAN’s President and CEO William Jandrisits said the acquisition “will add scale to our operating platform and expand our origination capability for single family residential mortgages,” adding that “We expect the addition of Xceed’s CMHC origination and underwriting capabilities combined with MCAN’s existing operations and superior access to capital will contribute to long-term, sustainable earnings.”
Still, brokers are increasingly sensitive to corporate and own changes at monolines and other key lenders following ING’s departure in February after Scotia bought the popular lender in August of 2012. The move sparked a competition for its brokers with MCAP, Street, Scotia and First National all vying for new business.
But Jones feels that the specific services offered by Xceed that were sought out by MCAN almost guarantees that the alternative lender will remain viable in the mortgage channel.
“MCAN and Xceed have synergies; this was a complementary deal,” he says. “We are going to do our level best to service mortgage brokers – all I can really say for certain is ‘Stay tuned.’”
Some of the more popular offers over the years from Xceed include the special five-year AAA XtraGreen mortgage offer, which in the fall of last year gave brokers an extra 10 bps commission on top of the 125 bps; and prime rate offers with a maximum loan-to-value of 75 per cent back in January of last year.
