What a licence actually covers
A licence tells you that a business has registered with a provincial or territorial regulator, that the regulator supervises its conduct, and that you have a defined place to escalate a complaint. It does not tell you that the lender is inexpensive, that its terms suit your situation, or that an application will be approved. Lending in Canada is licensed provincially, so the regulator and the rules differ depending on where you live and where you sign.
Some lenders are federally regulated instead. At federally regulated financial institutions, consumer complaints go to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, while provinces license and supervise most other lenders. That means the useful first question is not “is this lender licensed?” but “licensed by whom, for which activity, in which province?”
How to check a licence in six steps
- Find the legal entity name. A website often trades under a brand that is not the licensed corporation. Look for the registered name in the terms of use, the privacy policy and the credit agreement itself.
- Note the province you will actually be dealing with. Licensing follows the province where the business operates and where you sign. If you move, or apply to a business operating elsewhere, the answer can change.
- Find the right regulator. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s list of provincial and territorial regulators is the starting point. It points to the body that handles lending, mortgage and payday licensing in each province and territory.
- Search the public registry. Most provincial regulators publish a searchable register of licensed lenders, mortgage brokers or payday lenders. Search the legal name, then read the licence category. The category matters as much as the entry does.
- Match the details. Compare the address, phone number and website on the register with the ones the business gave you. A licence number that does not match what you were told is a reason to stop and ask again.
- Ask for the licence details in writing. A licensed business can tell you which regulator supervises it and how to reach that regulator. A vague answer, or a refusal to answer, is itself information.
Who supervises which kind of business
The table below is a starting map rather than a substitute for checking the registry. The categories overlap in practice, because one brand can run a lending arm, a brokerage arm and a website that introduces applicants to third parties.
| Type of business | Who supervises it | Where complaints go |
|---|---|---|
| Federally regulated financial institutions | Federal supervision | Financial Consumer Agency of Canada |
| Most other lenders, including payday lenders where the province licenses them | The province or territory | The provincial or territorial complaint process |
| Mortgage brokers and agents | The province where they operate | The same provincial or territorial regulator |
| Businesses administering consumer proposals or bankruptcies | Only a licensed insolvency trustee can administer either one | Start with the trustee, then escalate to the federal body that licenses trustees |
| Comparison and matching services, including loanmoose.ca | Not lenders, and not licensed as lenders, because they do not lend or make credit decisions | The service’s own complaint path, plus general consumer protection and privacy law |
What a search for “money lenders near me” actually returns
A local search for money lenders near me returns a mixture of businesses doing quite different things. Some are lenders that advance their own money. Some are brokers that arrange a loan with a lender. Some are comparison or matching services that pass your details to lenders and are paid for the introduction. Others sell leads. Each has a different licence status, a different set of obligations and a different complaint route.
That matters because a licence held by one kind of business does not cover the others. A brokerage registration does not make a business a lender, and a matching service is not licensed as a lender because it is not lending. If you search loan companies near me and click through several results, you can land on four sites that look almost identical while operating under four different models. The footer, the terms of use and the privacy policy are the fastest way to tell them apart.
loanmoose.ca is a loan matching and comparison service. It is not a lender, it does not make loans, set rates or make credit decisions, and it does not decide who is approved. Throughout this guide, “the lender” means the licensed business that would actually advance funds and hold the agreement with you.
When the phrase loan company near me surfaces a business you have never heard of, treat the local address as a starting point rather than a sign of legitimacy. What counts is the licensed entity and the province that supervises it, and that is something you can verify in a registry.
Rates, caps and benchmarks: what a licence does not fix
A licence does not set the price you pay, and it does not make a lender competitive. Price limits come from separate rules:
- The Criminal Code criminal rate of interest is 35% per year (s. 347). Charging above that threshold is a criminal offence.
- Where a province operates a licensed payday lending regime, the federal Payday Lending Regulations (SOR/2024-114) cap the cost of borrowing at $14 per $100 advanced. Some provinces set a payday cap lower than $14 per $100, and the lower cap applies.
- Quebec does not license payday lending, which effectively prohibits the model there.
- A payday loan is generally up to $1,500 for a term of 62 days or less.
- At federally regulated lenders, a home equity line of credit is generally limited to 65% of appraised property value, with total secured lending usually capped at 80%.
- Federally regulated mortgage lenders generally work to a total debt service ratio ceiling of about 44%, and qualify an uninsured mortgage at the greater of the contract rate plus 2 percentage points and 5.25%, under OSFI Guideline B-20.
- Canadian fixed-rate mortgages are compounded semi-annually by law.
Benchmarks are not offers. Canada’s central bank publishes the policy interest rate, the prime rate, conventional mortgage rates and Government of Canada benchmark bond yields, but these are reference points only, and no lender is obliged to lend at them. The lowest rates are only available to the most qualified applicants.
Before you sign
- Read the credit agreement for the total cost of borrowing, not just the scheduled payment.
- Confirm the legal entity named on the agreement is the entity you checked in the registry.
- Check that the province named on the agreement is the province that licenses the lender.
- Keep a copy of the disclosure documents, the agreement and every statement.
- Note the complaint process and the internal escalation step in writing before you need it.
Where to complain, and where it goes next
Start with the lender’s own complaint process and keep a dated log of who you spoke to and what was said, because most regulators expect you to exhaust that route first. If the lender is federally regulated, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s complaints page sets out the steps and the bodies involved. If the lender is provincially licensed, use the provincial regulator you identified earlier, which is where a lending or brokerage licence is granted and supervised.
Credit reporting is a separate matter from licensing. A consumer proposal stays on a credit report for 3 years after completion, or 6 years from filing, whichever comes first, and a first bankruptcy stays on a credit report for 6 years after discharge. Canada has two national credit reporting bureaus, Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can administer a consumer proposal or bankruptcy, so a business offering to do either without that licence is not authorised to do it.
This guide explains how the checks work rather than what to do in your own case. Whether a particular loan makes sense depends on your income, debts and goals, and on significant decisions it is worth getting advice from a regulated professional. A licence check is a filter for who you are dealing with, not a verdict on the deal itself.