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It’s always been the biggest day of the year for Canada’s mortgage industry, an opportunity for mortgage professionals to network, connect and celebrate the year’s highest achievers in a range of different categories. Yet over the course of the past 12 months, the Canadian Mortgage Awards (CMAs) have taken on an added significance as the largest virtual gathering of the mortgage industry across the country since the outbreak of COVID-19 pushed workers out of the office and into a home working model.
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the CMAs have shone a light on how the mortgage industry is coping with the unprecedented circumstances cast upon it. A series of virtual panels, chaired by prominent industry figures and featuring the views of award finalists, allowed attendees to listen and learn from some of the mortgage space’s leading voices on how they’ve adapted their approach to their daily work since the outbreak.
The pace of change in the industry since the outbreak of the pandemic may have taken some by surprise. One of the biggest transformations has been in the technology space, with an end to face-to-face meetings and client visits precipitating an enormous surge towards the adoption of technology tools – even among those brokers who were previously reluctant to embrace the digital side of their job.
NOMINATIONS
Nominations were solicited and received from a wide range of mortgage professionals and organizations from across Canada, including brokers, brokerages, lenders, BDMs, underwriters, agents and service providers. Nominations were open from November 18, 2020 to January 15, 2021 and were free of charge. Nominators were asked to provide the nominee’s contact details and a brief reason for the nomination.
RESEARCH
The Canadian Mortgage Awards team conducted research and drew on knowledge and information gained through MortgageBrokerNews.ca and CMP magazine to supplement the nominations received and to ensure no one deserving of recognition was missed.
FINALISTS
Once all nominations were considered and research was complete, finalists were selected in each category (except for the Lifetime Achievement Award) and notified. All finalists were then invited to complete a detailed submission that addressed the category criteria in more detail. That submission remained confidential unless marked and was not shared with any third parties other than the judges. Finalists were announced on the event website and promoted in CMPand on MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
JUDGING
All finalist submissions were forwarded to an independent judging panel composed of mortgage and real estate industry leaders and senior representatives. The panel assessed and voted for the winners in each category according to the relevant category criteria. Any judge with a conflict of interest in a category recused themselves from judging that category.
WINNERS
Using a simple points system to aggregate the judges’ votes, the CMA team identified the finalists with the top scores in each category, who were named as winners at the virtual Canadian Mortgage Awards show on April 29.