A Lower Mainland, British Columbia, woman was fined $35,000 after admitting she “continued” to work as a mortgage broker by preparing 10 mortgage applications, even though she had no not obtained the necessary registration.

Three of the mortgage applications Sarbjit Bains was involved in also contained “falsified financial documents,” according to a consent order she signed with the province’s registrar of mortgage brokers.

Although the falsified documents were provided to Bains by another unregistered broker, identified only as JKC in the consent order, Bains neither confirmed their veracity nor met with the associated mortgage applicants before forwarding them to a bank employee.

“MS. Bains knew or should have known that these documents were not authentic,” reads the October 22 order, which also notes that bank staff “relied on” some of the documents to “making lending decisions”.

The name of the bank is redacted in the order.

Course never finished

Bains was working as a mortgage specialist at another financial institution – whose name is also redacted in the order – when she helped arrange the 10 mortgage loans between 2018 and 2019.

She acknowledged that this was beyond the scope of her role and violated British Columbia’s Mortgage Brokers Act.

Bains has never been registered as a mortgage broker or submortgage broker in British Columbia – while she registered for a mortgage broker course in 2017 and completed the same course in 2019, she did not complete any of these efforts.

Mortgage specialists are commission-based salespeople who are limited to trading “products offered by the bank or institution for which they are employed,” according to the Canadian Securities Institute.

Of the 10 applications Bains helped submit to an outside bank, five were provided by JKC.

The consent order does not explain how Bains and JKC met or began working together, but notes that an investigation determined he also provided fraudulent documents to others working in the mortgage industry , including registered brokers.

Commissions sent by e-transfer

Bains also helped prepare the applications on behalf of four acquaintances, and the registrar found that she had “carried out the activities of a mortgage broker” in these cases by meeting with the borrowers, obtaining their personal information and working with a broker in sub-mortgages of the anonymous company. external bank.

This broker provided him with $3,611 in wire transfer commissions for his efforts.

Bains’ employer “did not know that she was sending transactions and files to another financial institution” or that she was receiving compensation for doing so, according to the consent order.

In addition to imposing an administrative penalty of $35,000 on Bains, the Registrar ordered her to “immediately cease” acting as a mortgage broker or submortgage broker unless she registers with this effect.