Originally Published by Canadian Mortgage Trends.
“Despite Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation CEO Evan Siddall warning of a mortgage “deferral cliff,” and a sharp rise in mortgage defaults this fall, data from the country’s key mortgage lenders appear to be telling a different story.
That cliff is looking more like a “slope,” according to Equitable Bank President and CEO Andrew Moor, who reported a decline in mortgage deferrals from 20% of the bank’s portfolio to just 6% as of mid-July.
“Our general feeling is that many of our customers called looking for a deferral just out of an abundance of caution in an uncertain economic scenario,” Moor said during the bank’s Q2 earnings call.
It was a similar story across Canada’s non-Big-Six bank mortgage lenders.
Both Home Capital and First National have seen their mortgages in deferral fall to a third of their peak levels, and both expect more mortgage clients to get back to their regular payment schedules in the coming months.
One of Canada’s two private mortgage default insurers reported a similar scenario, with an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year.
“Provided the current economic trends continue, we expect the level of reported mortgage deferrals to decline over the second half of the year,” said Genworth Canada President and CEO Stuart Levings.
More highlights from the conference call transcripts from Home Capital, Equitable Bank, First National and Genworth Canada…” CONTINUE READING…