As we approach the biggest mortgage renewal cycle ever, brokers are starting to question OSFI's recent stress test exemption on uninsured switches. It's looking suspiciously like a gift-wrapped competitive advantage for banks, some believe.

Thousands of long-time mortgage brokers and unwitting customers have experienced Scotiabank's frustrating mortgage renewal policy.

If you don't renew or pay out the mortgage by the deadline, the bank shackles you to a new closed term. Borrowers must then often pay hefty penalties to get out of the mortgage.

Scotiabank's renewal policy is like a surprise party—without the party. And at least one customer has had enough. Lawyers representing this borrower initiated a proposed class action lawsuit earlier this year. MLN spoke with one of the lawyers on the case, and here's how things might shake out.

The bank regulator's axing of the mortgage stress test on uninsured switches was a win for consumers—but so far, only a partial win.

OSFI has definitively confirmed that the stress test exemption "does not apply to straight [uninsured] mortgage switches from a provincially regulated lender."

What every mortgage originator wants to know, however, is whether borrowers can switch uninsured mortgages to non-federally regulated bank-funded lenders (i.e., MFCs) without a stress test.

OSFI just provided some degree of clarification on that.

If you didn't catch the CRA's request for comment on its new "income verification tool," it's not your fault. Apparently, CRA didn't think it was important enough to widely publicize and get maximum industry feedback.

That's okay. After all, it's only one of the most pivotal mortgage technologies since automated underwriting systems. Or, at least, it's got that potential—assuming CRA builds it properly.

For that to happen, the taxman has to get the right industry feedback. Based on how weakly it's seeking feedback, we worry it's not taking this seriously enough.

What if everything borrowers thought they knew about rates in 2025 was wrong?

That's what one of our favourite macro analysts, RBC's Frances Donald, posed in her Bloomberg appearance on Monday. She noted, "We're really starting to actively think about, is there a scenario that leads to [Fed] hikes in 2025?"

Hold up—did someone just say hikes?

Indeed, and Ms. Donald made that comment before the stagflationary risk of Trump's coercive tariffs made headlines on Tuesday. Is it just us, or is 2025 starting to feel like an interest-rate movie dreamt up by M. Night Shyamalan?