Article content

ING Direct, fresh off its purchase by Bank of Nova Scotia in November, informed mortgage brokers Wednesday it will no longer do business with them — a move that is rankling some people in the industry, who fear the consumer is losing a major advocate.

In a memo obtained by the Financial Post, ING Direct indicates to brokers that it had studied the two financial institutions’ products and found “considerable overlap.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Scotiabank cuts off mortgage brokers at ING Direct Back to video

“We felt that both ING Direct’s and Scotiabank’s objectives would be better served by allowing each entity to focus its efforts on its own relative strengths,” Kim Luxton, director of broker sales, said in the memo.

ING will now focus on the direct channel to consumers while the brokerage lending business will be diverted to Scotiabank, which the memo describes as the largest in Canada. When the deal was completed in November, Scotiabank said it would operate ING as a separate and distinct wholly owned subsidiary.