88%
of mortgage consumers searched rates online. 72% used online calculators, 33% comparison sites, 32% broker websites and 31% lender websites.
Research
The state of financial trust in Canada.
Every figure this site uses, in one place, with the year it covers, the population it actually describes, and a link to the primary source.
The figures
Every number, with what it covers.
Every figure the rest of this site draws on. Each one shows its year, the population it actually covers, and a link to the body that published it.
51%
reported debt payment strain, and 14% missed a payment.
2.71×
the cost of non-compliance against the cost of compliance.
8 to 30
FINTRAC administrative penalties issued, 2021 against 2025.
60%
less post-meeting administration at one advice firm, and 50% less call-review time at another.
75%
less compliance labour at one enterprise customer. Others report three roles of capacity released, more than 2,000 hours saved a year, and 20% company growth.
US$300M
annual recurring revenue across 16,000 customers at Vanta. Drata reports more than US$100M across 8,000+ customers, Nasdaq Verafin US$329M across 2,800+ institutions, and Flinks more than 15,000 institutions.
31,709
Canadian firms counted in the regulated categories 4orm is built for: 1,162 Ontario mortgage brokerages, 14,100 real-estate brokerages, 9,722 insurance agencies, 6,480 automobile dealers and 245 CIRO dealer members.
3.70M
major decisions a year: 1.33M mortgage originations, 470,314 MLS home sales and 1,897,055 new vehicles.
94%
of Canadian respondents said compliance requirements had become more complex over three years. 92% reported a negative effect on implementing and maintaining systems and data, and 86% on senior management’s attention and focus.
C$753M
in reported annual compliance costs, up from C$416M in 2022. A rise of 81%, or C$337M more annual spending across the survey group.
26%
increase in the full-time employees required for compliance. Nearly three quarters of reported compliance spending came from internal labour.
C$20M
the maximum administrative monetary penalty for a very serious violation, with C$4M for serious and C$40,000 for minor. Up to 40 times the previous ceilings.
C$25M+
across 23 notices of violation issued to reporting entities in one fiscal year. Amounts issued, not cash collected.
C$197.8M
in fines in 2025, up from C$6.9M in 2024. 56% of the entities involved lacked policies.
11 Oct 2026
the date by which mortgage brokers, administrators and lenders in scope since commencement must complete their first documented effectiveness review. The sector entered the federal anti-money-laundering regime on 11 October 2024.
745,000
accounts reimbursed more than C$38M. The duty to assess whether a product is appropriate sits with the bank.
C$59.4M
in restitution and C$20.7M in fines, alongside a review in which many firms could not evidence their know-your-product work.
44%
answered fewer than half of seven investment knowledge questions correctly. 39% correctly recognised the survey’s high-return, low-risk investment fraud warning sign.
52%
of recent homebuyers paid the most they could afford. 32% encountered unexpected costs.
47%
of industry participants said a yes-or-no income confirmation would not meet their needs. They asked for detailed income records, digital responses and borrower authorization.
32%
annual turnover among dealership finance and insurance managers, the role that carries the disclosure conversation.
About 3 in 4
firms highlighted difficulties integrating, sourcing or connecting data, and reported stronger processes for responding to misunderstanding than for detecting it beforehand.
90 to 15 min
the reported change in quality-assurance review time at one customer. Other suppliers report a SOC 2 audit cycle falling from four or five months to five weeks, compliance work falling from 60% to 15% of team time, one hour per employee per day saved in tax-season administration, and a 40% lower advice-file review cost.
75%
of Canadian respondents cited risk visibility as a benefit of compliance technology. 56% cited decision making and 56% cited productivity and cost.
47%
of homebuyers reported feeling concerned or uncertain during the homebuying process. Down from close to two thirds in earlier surveys.
26%
of mortgage consumers reported concern or uncertainty specifically while going through the mortgage process.
$704M+
in reported losses to fraud, across more than 112,000 reports. Investment fraud alone accounted for $351 million of it.
5 to 10%
the estimated share of frauds that are reported at all, which is why the figure above is a floor rather than a measure.
2,878
complaints opened at the Real Estate Council of Ontario in one year, up 88 per cent on the year before.
$15.7M
paid out on errors and omissions claims in Ontario real estate in a single year.
$1.2M
in penalties across 100 enforcement actions in one financial year.
2,332
charges laid in one year, carrying $1.9 million in fines.
105 firms
reviewed where suitability determinations were recorded without the basis for them.
45%
of examined life and health agents failed to meet the needs-based sales practices expected of them.
£9.1bn
set aside for redress in United Kingdom motor finance, across 12.1 million agreements. What it costs when the record cannot answer the question.
100%
of files reviewed had no documented suitability assessment.
73%
of those same files were missing or had inadequate disclosure of material risk.
65%
were missing or had inadequate disclosure of the relationship or the conflict.
100%
of the entities examined had inadequate supervision of their mortgage brokering. The finding extended beyond individual files to the firm level.
105
registered firms reviewed. Some had little or no documentation, or recorded only that an investment was suitable without showing the basis for that determination.
2,332
charges laid against dealers, salespeople and unregistered sellers, drawing $1.9 million in fines.
895
charges laid against 174 alleged curbsiders, people selling vehicles commercially while presenting as private sellers.
$1.5M
paid to consumers from the Motor Vehicle Dealers Compensation Fund, with a further $825,552 returned through dealer compensation or refunds.
712
mystery shopping interactions at the six largest banks. 45% of credit card shoppers and 32% of chequing shoppers reported an inappropriate product recommendation.
+11.8%
consumer insolvencies against the same month a year earlier. Consumer filings were 96.8% of all insolvency filings.
35%
a year is the criminal interest rate in Canada, outside a narrow exemption for licensed payday lending capped at 14% of the amount advanced.
43%
of payday borrowers understood that a payday loan is more expensive than the alternatives. Nearly a quarter had taken six or more loans in three years.
How to read these. A supervision sample is not a national rate. Where a figure covers one regulator's review of one set of files, the scope line says so, and quoting it as anything wider would be wrong.
Where the duty lands
Four markets, and the same shape in each one.
The duty is the same in all four: establish what the person needs, consider the options, recommend with a reason, disclose what matters, obtain informed consent, and keep a record another qualified person could re-perform.
| Market | Firms | Professionals | Transactions a year | What the regulator found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage brokeringOntario | 1,162 | 14,585 | 270,000 | No documented suitability in 100% of reviewed files |
| Real estateOntario | 3,738 | 111,332 | 470,314 national | Complaints up 88 per cent in one year |
| AutomotiveOntario | 8,000 | 30,000 | 1,897,055 national | Guidance on undisclosed lender compensation |
| Life and healthOntario | 6,680 | 61,070 | not published | 45% of examined agents failed needs-based sales |
How to read this. Firms hold the licence and the budget. Professionals create the records. Transactions set the ceiling on how often any of this happens. Counts are the published sector figures for the province named.
What is deliberately absent
Three things we will not put on a page.
One figure about software useNo screen on this site names the tooling behind it, so a figure measuring that tooling has no place here either.
Current auto loan termsThere is no current Canadian primary source for average loan term or negative equity. The last government figures are from 2015 and are not presented as today.
Anything we could not traceIf a number could not be followed back to the body that published it, it was left out rather than softened.