The former agent also admitted receiving at least seven additional mortgage fees totalling $15,000 outside her brokerage
A former Ontario mortgage agent who deceived non-English-speaking clients and bypassed her registered brokerage over several years has been penalised $60,000 by the province's financial services regulator.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued an order on September 9, imposing 15 administrative penalties on Po Yuk (Peggy) Chan, who held mortgage agent licence M08000648 from July 1, 2008, until its expiry on March 31, 2023.
The order followed a settlement signed by Chan on August 28, and ratified by FSRA's Acting Director of Litigation and Enforcement, Troy Harrison, on September 2.
Chan admitted to three categories of breach under the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act, 2006 (MBLAA): dealing in mortgages for remuneration outside her registered brokerage; receiving payments from persons other than her brokerage; and providing false or deceptive information during mortgage transactions in Ontario.
Years of transactions bypassing the brokerage
Settlement documents outline at least 11 transactions in which Chan collected fees outside her registered brokerage, Northwood Mortgage Ltd. (licence #10349), which terminated her on December 9, 2022, following a contract breach. The documented conduct extends as far back as 2018.
Two of the four named transactions involve a client identified in settlement documents as YHC — described as an older adult who does not speak, read, or write English.
In a 2018 deal, Chan created a mortgage commitment letter bearing the Northwood logo. Northwood later confirmed it never issued the document and had no records for the private lender named within it. Chan admitted earning a $4,300 broker fee outside her brokerage for that transaction.
In a 2021 follow-up, a private mortgage was registered on YHC's property without her understanding the documents she had signed. Chan earned $3,000 in fees on that deal.
In 2019, a client identified as YTL, also a non-English speaker, was taken to a lawyer's office to sign documents Chan had described as paperwork for an interest-free loan. The documents were for a mortgage subsequently registered against YTL's property. Chan collected a $2,000 fee outside her brokerage.
A 2022 transaction involving a client identified as KT saw private mortgage documents substituted for line-of-credit paperwork, with loan proceeds deposited into a joint bank account shared with Chan. That deal generated a $7,000 fee outside the brokerage.
Chan also admitted receiving at least seven additional mortgage fees totalling $15,000 outside her brokerage.
Penalties and a mounting enforcement backdrop
Of the 15 penalties imposed, 11 totalling $45,000 relate to receiving remuneration outside a registered brokerage, contrary to section 4(1) of Ontario Regulation 187/08. Four totalling $15,000 were issued for providing false or deceptive information, contrary to section 43(2) of the MBLAA.
Chan must pay the full $60,000 within 30 days of the order's issuance, or FSRA may file the order with the Superior Court of Justice for enforcement as a court judgment.
Chan has waived all appeal rights and admitted she is not suitable for licensing under the Act.
The case sits within the context of FSRA's first enforcement annual report for 2024-25, which documented 100 enforcement actions — up from 65 the prior year — and approximately $1.2 million in administrative monetary penalties across sectors, the majority in mortgage brokering.
It is consistent with a pattern of enforcement actions targeting Ontario agents who collected fees outside their registered brokerages, and with Ontario's regulator's sustained focus on agents who submitted false or deceptive documentation during mortgage transactions.
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