You have structured, underwritten and presented commercial credit for years. As a broker you do the same work for the client instead of the bank, with forty lenders instead of one policy.
Written by A.I.M.I. Collective Mortgage Group, Brokerage editorial team
Published September 2026 · Last reviewed 11 September 2026
Commercial bankers make unusually strong commercial brokers because the hard part of the job, reading a rent roll, normalising income and building a structure a credit committee will approve, is already yours. What changes is who you work for, how you are paid, and how many lenders you can take a file to. This guide is for account managers, commercial lenders and business bankers considering the move.
Coverage, leverage, guarantor strength, exit. You underwrite the way the desk underwrites, which means your files arrive at lenders already done.
Seconds, vendor take backs, holdbacks, cross collateral. You have seen every structure from the inside of a committee.
Accountants, lawyers, developers and owners already know you as the person who understands their financing.
You know what a lender will ask before it asks. That is the most valuable skill on a commercial file.
The file your bank declined has a home somewhere. Learning appetite across banks, credit unions, life companies, CMHC lenders and private funds is the new skill.
Borrower paid fees in an engagement letter, agreed before the work. New for most bankers and central to the income.
Appraisers, environmental consultants and lawyers set the pace. Six files at once, each on its own clock.
Every commercial client has a house. The residential files you never touched at the bank are now income and retention.
Answer four quick questions and we will email you the three guides that fit where you are today.
Weeks one to four: licensing complete, lender registrations, the commercial lender map with the Deal Desk, and a quiet review of which relationships you may keep. Weeks five to eight: coffee with the accountants and lawyers who can send files, the first scenario through the desk, a residential file to learn the workflow. Weeks nine to twelve: first commercial file at term sheet, first residential file funded, and a twelve month plan for one asset class.
The conversation is confidential and nothing is said to your employer. Clients you originate as a broker are yours, including the renewal and the referral. The client list you built at the bank stays at the bank, and we will not ask you for it. What we carry is the licensing paperwork, the lender registrations and the first hard files while you learn where they go.
Leaving a bank mobile mortgage specialist role to become a broker in BC, Alberta or Ontario: licensing, the income model, lender choice and your contract.
Salary, bonus, pension and benefits against commission, split, book value and expenses: the honest economics of moving from the bank to a brokerage.
Non solicit clauses, privacy law and the client list that cannot leave with you: what a banker turned broker can and cannot do with existing relationships.
Nine steps from the bank to a brokered book: licence, brokerage, orientation, plan, network, first file, book, specialty, scale, and the support at each.
Book a discovery call about your timeline, your network and what the first ninety days look like here. Nothing is said to your employer.