M3 Group Expands National Bank Partnership to Ontario

M3 Group and National Bank of Canada (NBC) have announced a partnership to expand access to NBC's mortgage offerings in Ontario, effective October 2021. M3 is the only brokerage group that distributes a National Bank-branded product offering, and the NBC deal offers key advantages that HSBC's didn't, such as a fuller suite of products and the All-in-One HELOC. NBC's launch in Ontario includes its uninsured 1- to 5-year fixed products, which could give M3 brokers important options given the limited availability of low-cost 1- to 4-year uninsured products in the broker space. National Bank's equity-style products will not be available through brokers at launch, but M3 will provide brokers with access to its exclusive lender via its in-house deal management system (DMS). This integration increases the speed of decisions and document processing and improves the client experience. NBC will roll out to other lenders someday, but it could be a while. This is a good news story for M3 brokers and consumers alike, as the more competitive brokers are with banks, the more competitive the market becomes for consumers.