No. No Canadian statute or regulator defines them. They are market shorthand, and no two lenders draw the lines in quite the same place.
A, B and private are labels the market uses, not legal categories. Each lender draws its own lines, which is why the same file can be declined at one lender and approved at another in the same tier.
The line that matters most is qualification. A lending generally means the borrower qualifies at the federal minimum qualifying rate on that lender's terms. A file that fails there is not a worse file, it is a file for a different shelf.
Private lenders look at something else again: the exit. A private lender is asking what happens in twelve months rather than what happened three years ago, so packaging a private deal around the exit is most of the work.
Brokers here submit directly to more than 100 lenders, including major banks, monolines, credit unions, B lenders, private and alternative lenders, with top tier status on every file and no middle layer taking a cut between you and the approval. Weekly lender training covers policy changes and declined files, and the Deal Desk places the files that need a lender you have not worked with before.
How the tiers actually work and where each file belongs.
A, B and private lending tiersMIC meaning in plain English: how a mortgage investment corporation works, what MIC loans cost in 2026 and how MICs compare with B and private lenders.
When a mortgage becomes an investment product sold to investors, a second regulator is involved. Where mortgage brokering ends and securities law starts.
Look up any mortgage agent or broker licence in Ontario, BC or Alberta. Direct links to each free regulator search and what to check before you sign.
Bring your questions to a discovery call and a broker owner will answer them directly.