AI-powered mortgage lender Northguard Financial to launch in 2027

Northguard Financial is preparing for a national rollout in 2027, with former Paradigm and MERIX CEO Katherine Gregory at the helm of a new broker-focused lender offering AI-powered underwriting and plans for a full range of mortgage products.

Gregory is leading a team of industry veterans who have spent more than a year developing technology intended to speed up mortgage decisions, reduce underwriting errors and help brokers place more complex files.

In an in-person interview with Canadian Mortgage Trends at Mortgage Professionals Canada’s national conference in Calgary, Gregory said the idea grew out of her desire to build another lending business after selling Paradigm and MERIX to MCAP, and what she sees as an opportunity to meaningfully disrupt the mortgage market.

“After a couple of years, I realized I’m a builder and this is what makes me happy,” she said. But she acknowledged that launching another mortgage lender into an already crowded market required something different.

“Just to launch another mortgage finance company is like, okay, we’ve got lots of them. Why?”

Frank Tucci, who is part of Northguard’s founding leadership team and responsible for operations, put it more directly. “Brokers do not need another portal. But we can build something that fits in today’s reality and changes the broker experience,” Tucci said.

Northguard is betting that a combination of experienced mortgage professionals, faster technology and a wider range of lending products will be enough to set it apart.

Northguard at a glance

• Leadership: Katherine Gregory, CEO; Frank Tucci, Chief Operating Officer; Eric Dahan, Chief Business Officer; Moe Forget, investor and alternative lending; Sam Stravato, Chief Technology Officer; and Steve McDonald, Chief Financial Officer
• Broker channel: Exclusively broker-focused, with no planned limit on the number of brokers it works with
• Initial products: Insured, B-20-compliant mortgages
• Future products: Alternative, MIC-style and private lending, with plans to establish its own lending fund
• Technology: Proprietary AI-enabled origination and servicing platform, including automated underwriting and document review
• Underwriting speed: Initial responses in as little as nine seconds in company testing
• Rollout: Quebec and Eastern Canada in Q1 2027, followed by Western Canada in Q2

Building a lender around new technology

Northguard’s launch follows its acquisition of Wiseday, a small Quebec-based lender. Gregory said the company is completing the accounting and integration work associated with the transaction while preparing to introduce its new technology platform early next year.

The platform has been in development for more than a year and is designed to handle both mortgage origination and servicing. In company testing, the system has returned initial underwriting responses in about nine seconds.

The system evaluates applications against embedded lending policies, identifies required documentation and automatically reassesses files as additional documents are submitted. While an initial response can be generated in seconds, it does not necessarily constitute final mortgage approval.

Lending policies are built into the system, allowing it to flag missing information, eligibility problems and applications that may require an exception.

Gregory said the objective is not simply to make decisions faster, but to improve their consistency. “At the end of the day, it’s really about accuracy,” she said.

Tucci said the need for greater consistency has emerged repeatedly in discussions with mortgage brokers. “I thought I might hear that it would be broker comp, maybe rates, but more often than not, it’s more about speed and consistency,” he said.

The technology will also support a feature called Make My Deal, which suggests changes that could help an application qualify for a different mortgage product. For example, the system could recommend adding a guarantor, adjusting the down payment or moving the application into a non-B-20 lending category.

Brokers will also be able to use a test environment to explore potential scenarios and review lending policies automatically before submitting an application, including how changes in borrower qualifications or down payments could affect available options.

Gregory said the tools could be particularly useful for brokers who primarily deal in prime mortgages but are looking to expand into alternative lending.

“We want to give the broker the tools and products to have a one-stop solution,” she said.

Moving beyond traditional lending categories

Northguard plans to move quickly beyond its initial prime mortgage offering, introducing additional products through funding partnerships that will eventually cover much of the credit spectrum, including alternative and private mortgages.

Gregory said the company is working to diversify its funding sources as it expands. It also plans to establish its own lending fund, although that will take additional time and capital.

The company’s mid-term objective is to allow brokers to serve borrowers throughout their mortgage life cycle, including helping clients move from alternative financing into prime products as their circumstances improve.

Gregory sees growing opportunities in alternative lending, particularly as more Canadians earn income outside traditional salaried employment. She pointed to self-employed borrowers and professionals, including doctors and others with non-traditional income structures, who don’t always fit standard underwriting models.

“I think it’s going to get harder for brokers,” she said. “I think there’ll be different types of more complex products priced differently.”

Northguard plans to address that complexity by giving brokers access to products across the credit spectrum, along with tools that suggest alternative ways to structure applications.

“I think bringing those products all to the same one-stop solution with the technology is the disruptor,” Gregory said.

Keeping underwriters in the process

Despite its heavy investment in automation, Northguard plans to maintain a hands-on approach to underwriting, with brokers able to choose how much direct interaction they want with the lender.

“The reality is AI is a tool,” Gregory said. Brokers who prefer working directly with underwriters will still be able to do so, while others can choose an entirely digital process.

“There are always going to be deals that don’t fit in the box,” Gregory said, adding that human intervention will remain necessary for applications requiring exceptions or additional review.

Northguard also plans to conduct quality assurance reviews on all files during its first several months of operation, according to Tucci.

Gregory stressed that the company intends to meet or exceed the underwriting and risk-management standards expected by its regulated funding partners. “We have a responsibility to make sure that we’re underwriting it properly,” she said.

The company is also developing AI-based fraud detection tools designed to flag discrepancies between mortgage applications and supporting documents.

Gregory expects the technology to lower operating costs as Northguard expands and its machine-learning capabilities improve. However, she acknowledged that the size of those savings remains uncertain while the system is still being tested.

The company has used conservative efficiency assumptions in its financial projections, taking into account uncertainty about how frequently brokers will prefer direct contact with underwriters and the additional complexity of introducing alternative lending products.

National expansion planned for 2027

Northguard expects to begin its rollout in Quebec and Eastern Canada during the first quarter of 2027, with Gregory suggesting February as a likely starting point.

Ontario would follow as part of the eastern expansion, with the Prairies and British Columbia targeted for the second quarter.

Gregory also confirmed that third-party mortgage servicing is part of Northguard’s longer-term strategy, with plans to eventually offer its technology to other lenders through a software-as-a-service model. No timeline has been established for that expansion.

For now, Gregory said the priority is getting the initial platform operational, introducing the company to brokers and progressively expanding its product offering.

She acknowledged that Northguard won’t be the only lender pursuing these capabilities. “We may be the first to market with this, but we’re certainly not going to be the last,” she said.

Still, after spending much of her career building mortgage businesses, Gregory sees Northguard as an opportunity to do it once more.

“I think it is an opportunity for us to build maybe one last legacy over the next five or 10 years and be wildly successful, while building a disruptive offering in the market and a tremendous family company culture,” she said.

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AI alternative lenders Eric Dahan Frank Tucci Katherine Gregory Lender Moe Forget mortgage industry news Paradigm Quest Sam Stravato Steve McDonald technology

Last modified: October 19, 2026