Advertising

All advertising will be in compliance with the standards of practice, as outlined in the Mortgage Brokers Lenders and Administrators Act.

The Act defines public relations materials as:

[Reg.187/08,s1]

 

Any advertisement by the broker or agent in connection with his or her status as a licencee or his or her dealing or trading in mortgages that is published, circulated or broadcast by any means
Or

Any material that a broker or agent makes available to the public in connection with his or her status as a licencee or his or her dealing or trading in mortgages.

 

These definitions are quite broad, brokers and agents should ensure that all their public relations materials meet the requirements outlined below and have been reviewed by their brokerage.

Whether “customer-facing forms and disclosure documents”, such as the Cost of Borrowing Disclosure Form, are considered to be public relations materials, the forms should state the name and licence number of the brokerage in order to make them compliant with the MBLAA rules and regulations.

 

Brokerages, brokers, agents may operate only under the names in which they are licensed. These are the authorized names. These are the names shown in the public registry of licencees on the FSCO website.

For Brokerages, both the authorized name and the licence number must be prominently disclosed in all of their public relations materials.

If public relations materials include the name of a broker and /or agent, the materials must identify the broker and/or agent by an approved title at least once in the materials. The approved titles are

 

For brokers: “mortgage broker”, “broker”.

 

For agents: “mortgage agent”, “agent”.

 

Brokers or agents must not identify themselves using titles such as mortgage specialist, mortgage consultant, consultant, etc.in place of the above approved titles.  However they may use terms as additional descriptors so  long as they so have first used the approved title. For example:

 

 

Mortgage brokers and agents must disclose their license number and the authorized name and license number of their home brokerage in all of their public relations materials.

All advertising must be approved by the principal broker or designate before final orders are placed.  This includes the ordering of business cards, printed material, websites, media and advertising, flyers, brochures, and all other marketing materials. Brokerage Name and Licence number must be prominently displayed along with Head office address and phone number.

FSCO allows Brokers and Agents to be licensed in their legal name and a “Nick name” as provided in brackets on the application for licensing. An agent can submit his name in the following format: Pasquale Jossepi(Pat) Morelli. The full name in this format including the brackets can be used in public relations material.  The bracketed name cannot be used if it is not part of the name provided in the license application and part of the public registry on the FSCO website. The use of only the bracketed name is technically non-compliant with the rules.
The principal broker will approve the draft ad, and must also approve the final artwork or content before the order is finalized.

If a Broker or Agent wishes to change the name in which they are licensed (e.g. to add a bracketed name, to change to a married name, etc.) a written request, with supporting documentation if required, must be submitted to the FSCO licensing department to have the change approved.

 

Subject to guidelines established by FSCO, the name or Real Mortgage Associates will be prominent on all business cards.  The brokerage license number will appear under the company name.  The broker’s or agent’s name s registered with FSCO and FSCO’s registration number will appear with the title broker (or mortgage broker) or agent (or mortgage agent) depending on their licensing qualifications. No other titles will be permitted on business cards.  

If an agent is operating from a location where the public is invited to do business, this location must be listed as a branch office with head office and that address may be indicated on the business card.  If your location is not registered as a branch office, that address may not be shown on the business card.  The Head office address must be listed and your local phone number may be included on the card.

 

On all advertising materials, brokers or agents where identified, must use their legal names as they are licensed with FSCO, or an alias or known-as name, which has also been licensed with FSCO.  No other names are permitted in any advertising materials.

 

Yellow Pages ads must be approved in advance by head office.  In all display advertising, Real Mortgage Associates Inc. and the corresponding license number must be prominent.  In addition, your name and license qualifications (broker or agent) must also be indicated.

Brokerages must answer their telephones using either their legal name or trade name as registered with FSCO.

 

Brokers and agents are permitted to maintain personal websites.  Although the URL for the website may belong to the broker or agent, all content on the site shall refer to Real Mortgage Associates.  

All content on the sites must be approved by head office.  The homepage must refer to Real Mortgage Associates and show the license number of the company.  All other pages must indicate that the agent or broker is a representative of Real Mortgage Associates, indicating the licensing designation.