How to Become a Mortgage Broker in Manitoba

In Manitoba, the words on the licence do not match the words used in most other provinces, and reading another province's ladder into Manitoba will send you to the wrong application. The Manitoba Securities Commission administers The Mortgage Brokers Act, which the Manitoba Financial Services Agency page describes as protecting mortgage investors and borrowers by regulating mortgage brokers and mortgage salespersons. The page states that there are two categories of mortgage broker registration: mortgage brokers and restricted mortgage brokers. Those are firm registrations. An individual starts as a mortgage salesperson and, after experience and further study, may register as an authorized official. This guide follows the Agency page exactly as written and names the points where that page is silent.

Step 1: Start as a mortgage salesperson

A mortgage salesperson must be an individual of good character and at least 18 years old, and must complete the Manitoba Mortgage Salespersons Licensing Course administered by Mortgage Professionals Canada. That course is the education requirement stated on the Agency page for a mortgage salesperson. The page states no course fee, course length, exam format, or application deadline for the course, so confirm each of those with Mortgage Professionals Canada before you pay.

Do not borrow education rules from Alberta, British Columbia, or Ontario. Manitoba does not use the associate and broker class names those provinces use for individuals. Its individual classes are mortgage salesperson and authorized official, and the course named for entry is the Manitoba course named above.

Step 2: Register under the sponsorship of a licensed mortgage broker

A mortgage salesperson completes and files an application with the Registrar on the approved form, under the sponsorship of a licensed mortgage broker, and submits a registration fee of $400. The application includes a Criminal Record Form, and the check is processed by the Commission as part of the registration process. The Agency page does not state a processing time, a renewal term, or any continuing education rule for a mortgage salesperson, so confirm those points with the Commission before relying on a start date.

Line up the sponsoring broker before you apply. The sponsorship is part of the application itself, not a step you add after registration, and the page gives no route for a salesperson to register without one.

Step 3: Build 24 months as a registered mortgage salesperson

An authorized official must have at least 24 months of experience as a registered mortgage salesperson within the 36-month period before applying for registration. The 24 months must fall inside that 36-month window. Time as a salesperson in another province, time in a related job, or time before registration is not stated to count, so do not assume it counts. Ask the Registrar how any earlier experience would be treated before counting on it.

An authorized official must also complete the Broker's Course as prescribed by the Registrar. The Agency page names the course that way and states no provider, length, fee, or exam detail for it. Confirm the current prescribed course with the Registrar rather than enrolling in a course another province prescribes.

Authorized officials for mortgage brokers must also provide the Registrar with a detailed resume and have mortgage administration experience at a senior level. That resume and senior-level experience rule is stated for authorized officials for mortgage brokers. If you do not live in Manitoba, a written undertaking must be included that you will agree to appear in Manitoba on reasonable notice by the Registrar for any reason affecting the broker's or the individual's business or conduct in Manitoba.

Step 4: Register as an authorized official

An authorized official completes and files an application with the Registrar on the approved form, under the sponsorship of a licensed mortgage broker, and submits a registration fee of $400. As with the salesperson application, a Criminal Record Form is part of the application and the check is processed by the Commission as part of the registration process. The Agency page lists the application step for an authorized official without a lettered (b) item, which appears to be a numbering slip on the page itself; the fee and the sponsorship requirement are stated plainly, and no other application step is stated.

Registration as an authorized official is not registration as a mortgage broker. The firm still needs its own registration, covered in Step 5, and the authorized official is the qualified individual the firm designates.

Step 5: Register the firm as a mortgage broker or restricted mortgage broker

A mortgage broker, called the Applicant on the Agency page, applies on approved forms provided by the Registrar and provides confirmation that the Applicant, if a company, is authorized to carry on business in Manitoba, an address for service in Manitoba, and the Applicant's business office address in Manitoba. If the Applicant does not intend to maintain a business office in Manitoba, it must provide the address of its solicitor or other legal representative in Manitoba where copies of documents and trust records will be furnished on demand by the Registrar. The registration fee is $500 for registration as a mortgage broker and $500 for registration as a restricted mortgage broker, payable to the Minister of Finance.

The firm requirements beyond the form and fee are firm-level, not individual education. The Applicant must provide proof of registration of any business or trade name, proof of errors and omissions insurance as required under the Act, and must designate at least one qualified individual as its authorized official. The trust account and surety bond rules and the audited financial statement rule do not apply to restricted mortgage brokers. For a mortgage broker, the Applicant must provide a letter from its financial institution confirming a non-interest-bearing trust account, a surety bond in the amount of $100,000 in the prescribed form from an insurer or surety company authorized to carry on business in Manitoba, and its most recent audited financial statements with an auditor's letter on capital, or interim statements where the rule requires them.

Figures the opened Agency page does not state

The Agency page states the registration fees, the experience rule, the course names, and the firm requirements set out above. It does not state the fee, length, or provider of the Broker's Course, the fee or length of the salesperson course, a processing time for any application, a registration term or renewal fee, or any continuing education requirement. Those figures were cut from this guide rather than filled in from course providers or other provinces. Confirm each one with the Manitoba Financial Services Agency before you plan around it.

Related guides:

• How to become a mortgage broker in Alberta: Alberta's associate-to-broker ladder under RECA, with different class names from Manitoba's.
• How to become a mortgage broker in British Columbia: British Columbia's mortgage broker licensing, where the individual licence carries the broker title.
• How to become a mortgage agent in Ontario: Ontario's entry-level mortgage agent licence, again under different class names.
• Licensed Occupations in Manitoba — every verified licence and credential in Manitoba, with the regulator that issues it

Sources

• Manitoba Financial Services Agency, Real Estate — the Manitoba Securities Commission's administration of The Mortgage Brokers Act, the two categories of mortgage broker registration, the mortgage salesperson course and fee, the authorized official experience and Broker's Course rules, the firm registration fee and requirements, and the trust account, surety bond, insurance, and financial statement rules.