Seven years of relationship-building put the network's brokers at the front of the queue
M3 Financial Group was happy to announce this week that all its brokerages were the very first in the industry to be fully onboarded with National Bank of Canada’s new process, a milestone M3 attributes to the strength of its lender relationships.
“National Bank moved our brokerages first because of the relationship we’ve built together over seven years,” said Eric Chamelot, Vice President, Lender Relations & Lending Solutions at M3 Financial Group, noting that the other two industry Networks should be onboarded later this year.
“That relationship, and our years of great work with the team there, is what let us get everything in place quickly and efficiently. It's one of the reasons we were ahead of the pack.”
Seven years in the making
The relationship dates back to 2019, when National Bank returned to the broker channel in Quebec exclusively through M3. They were the first broker network the bank partnered with in the province, a pattern they later repeated in 2021 when they piloted an Ontario rollout with a select group of M3 brokers, before a full rollout to all M3 brokers licensed in Ontario. M3 says that track record is part of why it was ready to move quickly with this new opportunity.
“Brokers at M3 benefit from our long-standing, strong partnership,” Chamelot said. “We had exclusive access early on, today that’s changed, but the relationships with National Bank’s team are why we were ready first, and why we’re working with them to keep improving the program.”
That's the story of the partnership, Chamelot added.
“It keeps evolving, and we keep evolving with it. We think of this next stage as partnership 2.0. It’s the same relationship, just running through a new process.”
Why the timing matters for brokers
National Bank’s broker pricing has consistently been very competitive this year amongst the bank lenders, and M3 says that protecting fast, uninterrupted access to that pricing was central to the transition to the new process.
Prime applications submitted by M3 brokers now move through First National Financial’s origination services, including underwriting and back-office support, M3 says that the support will help keep deal turnaround fast as broker-submitted volume continues to climb.
One piece of a bigger network story
National Bank has said it expects to take its broker strategy national in 2027, and M3 expects its relationship to put them at the forefront of how that plays out. It’s one of several lender relationships that M3 says it's actively working to strengthen this year.
“Our relationship with National Bank is just one of the examples of how we’re bringing our Networks together and offering brokers best-in-class service, and there are more great things coming,” Chamelot said. “We're investing in this Network deliberately, not reactively. We want our brokers to win and this one way we can support their growth.”
M3 brokers can access National Bank’s real-time rates and lending guidelines and submit applications directly through the Network’s BOSS platform, one of several updates coming to BOSS this year, all designed to help brokers spend less time managing complexity and more time growing their business.
This article was provided by M3 Financial Group
