Ontario’s financial regulator is beefing up enforcement and coming down hard on the province’s mortgage sector.

In a newly released report, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) said it initiated 100 enforcement actions during the 2024-25 fiscal year (up 53 per cent) for “non-compliance and deceptive practices” across multiple sectors, including mortgage, insurance, pensions and credit unions.

The FSRA said it imposed $1.2 million in penalties and that sanctions nearly doubled in volume over two fiscal years. Most of the investigations targeted individuals in the mortgage brokering sector, followed by insurance. At least 25 licenses were revoked and refused across both sectors.

“Enforcement is critical to FSRA’s mandate to protect consumers, promote high business standards, and deter fraud and misconduct in regulated sectors,” Elissa Sinha, the agency’s director of litigation and enforcement, wrote in the report. 

“FSRA made significant progress toward ensuring enforcement is fair and proportionate. The goal is to stop problems early, prevent harm, and discourage future misconduct,” she added.

The regulator said it was able to ramp up enforcement thanks to a “robust supervisory framework,” as well as stronger statutory authorities, rules and enhanced reporting of “unsuitable agents.”

“These developments allowed FSRA to take stronger and faster action against non-compliance and deceptive practices,” the report noted.

Some of the investigations mentioned in the FSRA’s annual enforcement report, include the case of Daniel Tiffin, a former insurance broker who was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after regulators found that he acted as an insurance agent without a valid licence and used licensed agents as “fronts” to receive commissions.

The report follows previous warnings issued last year by the FSRA about a “concerning trend” of insurance brokers working without a valid licence.

“There is a real risk of consumer harm if insurance agents disregard the law and forget or knowingly fail to renew their licence in time,” the FSRA claimed.

The agency says insurance policies sold by unlicensed agents could be voided, cancelled or cause damage to an individual’s insurance history, leading to higher fees.

“Consumers are strongly encouraged to check whether their life insurance advisors are licensed,” it added.

The FSRA website provides a lookup tool to find licensed agents in Ontario.