Reverse mortgage blog
Which Banks Offer Reverse Mortgages in Canada? (2026)
General information for Canadian homeowners, not personal financial, legal, or tax advice.
Key takeaways
- Two federally regulated, Schedule 1 Canadian banks do offer reverse mortgages — HomeEquity Bank, lending since 1986, and Equitable Bank — both named by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
- None of the six biggest banks — TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, or National Bank — offers a reverse mortgage. The closest any of them comes is a home equity line of credit or a refinance, and both of those are approved based on income.
- Ask your bank for one and you'll usually be referred out — RBC's own retirement-planning page points readers who want a reverse mortgage to the CHIP provider.
- A bank referral hands you one lender's offer, presented by that lender's own salespeople — while a broker compares all four Canadian reverse mortgage lenders for free (how to choose one).
- Two of the four lenders are banks, one is a trust company, and one is neither — but the label is not what protects a borrower. The No Negative Equity Guarantee and required advice from your own lawyer come with all four (OSFI registry of federally regulated institutions).
Two Canadian banks offer reverse mortgages in 2026 — HomeEquity Bank, the Schedule 1 bank behind CHIP, and Equitable Bank. The big banks — TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and National Bank — do not offer one.
Most homeowners looking into a reverse mortgage would rather get one from a bank they already know — or at least hear a clear reason why they cannot. The challenge is not that the answer is complicated. It is that the big banks’ own websites say almost nothing about reverse mortgages, so people click from page to page without finding a straight answer.
The straight answer has three parts: which institutions actually lend (two specialized Canadian banks, a trust company, and one lender that is neither), what the familiar banks offer a homeowner 55 or older instead (usually a home equity line of credit or a refinance), and what happens when someone asks at their local branch (often a referral to a reverse mortgage lender).
This page answers all three, bank by bank, and names the four lenders that do offer them.
Do banks offer reverse mortgages in Canada?
Yes — two of them. Most pages on this topic say “banks don’t offer reverse mortgages,” and that’s not quite right.
Reverse mortgages in Canada come from two federally regulated, Schedule 1 Canadian banks: HomeEquity Bank, which has offered the CHIP reverse mortgage since 1986, and Equitable Bank, which entered the market in 2018. Schedule 1 means a Canadian-owned bank set up under the federal Bank Act — the same legal category as TD or RBC. Both are named by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada as federally regulated institutions offering reverse mortgages.
What’s true is narrower: the banks most Canadians actually deal with — TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and National Bank — don’t offer them. Not one of the six has a reverse mortgage product.
The full list — four lenders, two of them banks
- HomeEquity Bank (CHIP) — Canada’s first and largest reverse mortgage lender, lending since 1986. It’s the name most people already know from decades of television advertising — the full CHIP review covers its products and who each one fits.
- Equitable Bank — the first challenger, in the market since 2018 and known for sharp base pricing. Its early-exit and renewal terms tend to be among the more borrower-friendly — reviewed in the Equitable Bank reverse mortgage review.
- Home Trust — a federally regulated trust company rather than a bank. Its EquityAccess product launched in October 2025 and is available only through mortgage brokers — covered in the Home Trust EquityAccess review.
- Bloom — a mortgage lender rather than a bank, licensed province by province and lending since 2021. It has the market’s only lifetime fixed rate and its only portable reverse mortgage — reviewed in the Bloom reverse mortgage review.
How the four compare on rates, fees, and fit is its own page: the best reverse mortgage companies in Canada.
Why don’t the big banks offer them?
A reverse mortgage sends money out and asks for nothing back for years. There are no required monthly mortgage payments — interest is added to the balance instead — so the lender collects nothing until the homeowner sells, moves out, or passes away. That takes a lender with staff and systems built around homeowners 55 and older, not around collecting monthly payments.
The big banks already sell the products that fit how they work: lines of credit and refinances, with payments arriving from day one. So a handful of specialized lenders built the reverse mortgage expertise instead.
What happens if you ask your bank for one?
One of two things. Some branches simply say no, and the conversation ends there — the bank has nothing to sell you and no duty to point you anywhere else.
Others refer you out. RBC’s own retirement-planning page, for example, lists a reverse mortgage among the ways to fund retirement — and points readers to the CHIP provider for it.
What a bank referral actually gets you
A referral like that hands you one lender’s offer. It’s presented by that lender’s own salespeople, and it’s tested against nothing — no second quote, no comparison, no one asking whether a different lender would offer you more or charge you less.
A broker working for you does the opposite: compares all four lenders and handles the file personally — the paperwork, the lender questions, the follow-ups. It’s such a normal route that the federal government’s own reverse mortgage page lists mortgage brokers alongside the lenders themselves as a place to get one. Choosing a reverse mortgage broker covers how to pick one and the questions that test any of them.
The work is free to you either way — the lender pays the broker, not the homeowner.
See all four lenders compared for your home
A free, no-obligation estimate compares every reverse mortgage lender in Canada for your age and home — no branch visit, no impact on your credit.
Get my free estimateDoes TD offer a reverse mortgage?
No. TD’s Canadian mortgage lineup runs from fixed and variable mortgages to the TD Home Equity FlexLine — a home equity line of credit, approved based on income. A line of credit like that isn’t only available at a branch — an independent broker arranges and compares them too. Full answer: does TD offer a reverse mortgage?
Does RBC offer a reverse mortgage?
No. RBC’s equity product is the Homeline Plan, a mortgage-and-credit-line combination that qualifies on income. For reverse mortgages, RBC’s own retirement page sends readers to the CHIP provider rather than to any RBC product. Full answer: does RBC offer a reverse mortgage?
Does BMO offer a reverse mortgage?
No. BMO’s lineup is fixed mortgages, variable mortgages, and the Homeowner ReadiLine — a mortgage combined with a line of credit. There’s no reverse mortgage among them. Full answer: does BMO offer a reverse mortgage?
Does CIBC offer a reverse mortgage?
No. CIBC defines the term in its online mortgage glossary, but it has no reverse mortgage product. What it offers a homeowner with equity is the Home Power Plan, a mortgage-and-line-of-credit combination approved based on income. Full answer: does CIBC offer a reverse mortgage?
Does Scotiabank offer a reverse mortgage?
No. Scotiabank’s advice pages explain how reverse mortgages work — how much you can borrow “depends on your age, the appraised value of your home and your lender,” in the bank’s own words — but Scotiabank isn’t one of those lenders and doesn’t offer the product. Its equity product is the Scotia Total Equity Plan (STEP), which spreads borrowing across mortgages and lines of credit — all of it income-tested.
Does National Bank offer a reverse mortgage?
No. National Bank’s advice pages describe reverse mortgages and link readers to the federal government’s explainer page instead of to any product of its own. What it offers a homeowner directly is lines of credit and refinancing, both approved on income.
Every “instead” product above — the lines of credit, the refinances — is something an independent mortgage broker arranges as well. You don’t have to walk into a branch to weigh a bank product against a reverse mortgage; a broker prices both sides, and the reverse mortgage vs HELOC comparison walks through how the two actually differ.
Free Guide:The Canadian Reverse Mortgage Guide
- ✓How much tax-free cash you could unlock — and what moves the number
- ✓The real costs, rates, and fees — nothing buried in fine print
- ✓How the lenders (CHIP, Equitable Bank, Home Trust, Bloom) really compare
- ✓When a reverse mortgage is the wrong choice
Simply enter your info below and a PDF copy will instantly be sent right to your inbox.
Does it matter that two of the four lenders aren’t banks?
Not the way most people expect. The labels describe which law a lender was set up under. They don’t describe how safe your mortgage is.
Here’s what each label actually means:
- HomeEquity Bank and Equitable Bank are banks. Both were set up under the federal Bank Act and both answer to OSFI, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions — the federal regulator that also supervises TD, RBC and the rest.
- Home Trust is a trust company. It was set up under a different federal law, the Trust and Loan Companies Act, and it answers to that same federal regulator. A trust company can also do something a bank cannot: act as a trustee, administering estates and trusts.
- Bloom is neither. It’s a mortgage lender rather than a bank or a trust company, licensed the same way mortgage brokerages are — by the provincial regulator in each province where it operates, currently Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
The protections don’t come from the label
Every reverse mortgage in Canada carries the No Negative Equity Guarantee, whichever of the four writes it: you or your estate can never owe more than the home’s fair market value at the time the mortgage becomes due, as long as you keep the property taxes paid, the home insured, in reasonable repair, and lived in as your primary residence. Every one of the four also requires you to get advice from your own lawyer, separate from the lender, before anything becomes final.
And in the way that matters most, all four work like any other mortgage — you stay on title, and the home stays yours.
What people are really asking about is deposit insurance
When someone asks whether a lender is “a real bank,” this is usually the worry underneath it — the federal coverage that protects money sitting in a savings account if a bank fails.
That coverage protects savings. It has nothing to do with a reverse mortgage in either direction, because you aren’t putting money in with these lenders. You’re borrowing it.
So the label isn’t the thing to choose on. The terms are — the rate, how much each lender will advance, the early-payment charges, and how the money reaches you. Those differ far more between the four than their legal labels do.
Who actually lends, and how do you choose among them?
Every reverse mortgage in Canada comes from one of the four lenders above — HomeEquity Bank, Equitable Bank, Home Trust, and Bloom. They aren’t interchangeable. The four differ on their features, their lending amounts, and how the money can reach you — and which one comes out ahead depends on your age, your home’s value, and its location.
There’s one more thing worth knowing: two of the four can’t be reached by phoning around at all. Home Trust sells only through mortgage brokers, and HomeEquity Bank’s highest-lending tier is arranged through the broker channel too — so a homeowner calling lenders one at a time can’t see the whole market.
The decision has two steps, and the first isn’t “which lender”
The first question is whether a reverse mortgage is the right move at all — or whether savings, a traditional mortgage, or a home equity line of credit is the better way to pay for what you’re planning. An independent broker starts there, and arranges those other products too, so “none of the above” is a normal answer.
Only then comes which of the four fits your situation. That comparison is covered lender by lender in the full lender comparison, and how a reverse mortgage works in Ontario walks the whole process from first question to funding. Comparing costs you nothing: the lender pays the broker after closing, and a free estimate shows what each lender would offer on your age and home before you commit to anything.
Frequently asked questions
Do any Canadian banks offer reverse mortgages?
Yes — two. HomeEquity Bank, which has offered the CHIP reverse mortgage since 1986, and Equitable Bank, which entered in 2018. Both are federally regulated Schedule 1 Canadian banks. The big banks — TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and National Bank — do not offer reverse mortgages at all.
Is it safe that my bank doesn't offer them?
Yes. Three of the four Canadian reverse mortgage lenders are federally regulated and supervised by OSFI, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions — HomeEquity Bank and Equitable Bank, which are banks, and Home Trust, which is a trust company. Bloom is licensed as a mortgage lender in each province where it operates instead. What protects you is the same at all four and does not depend on the lender's label: the No Negative Equity Guarantee is written into the loan agreement, and your own lawyer must advise you before anything becomes final.
Can my bank refer me to a reverse mortgage lender?
Some do. RBC's own retirement-planning page, for example, points readers who ask about reverse mortgages to the CHIP provider. A referral like that hands you one lender's offer, presented by that lender's own salespeople and tested against nothing. A mortgage broker instead compares all four lenders and handles the file personally, at no cost to you.
Why did my bank suggest a HELOC instead?
Because a home equity line of credit is the closest product the bank actually sells. A HELOC is a different tool — it needs enough income to qualify, and it comes with required monthly payments. Whether it beats a reverse mortgage depends on your income, your age, and what the money is for; the two are compared side by side in the reverse mortgage vs HELOC comparison on this site.
Are all reverse mortgage lenders in Canada banks?
No. Two of the four are banks — HomeEquity Bank and Equitable Bank, both set up under the federal Bank Act. Home Trust is a federally regulated trust company, and Bloom is a mortgage lender licensed province by province. The label describes which law the lender was set up under, not how safe the mortgage is: all four carry the No Negative Equity Guarantee and all four require advice from your own lawyer before anything becomes final.
Do credit unions offer reverse mortgages?
No. No credit union in Canada offers a reverse mortgage — the product comes from four lenders only: HomeEquity Bank, Equitable Bank, Home Trust, and Bloom. What a credit union can offer a homeowner 55 or older is the same as the big banks: a home equity line of credit or a refinance, both approved based on income and both with required monthly payments. A mortgage broker arranges reverse mortgages from all four lenders, wherever you do your day-to-day banking.
Who regulates reverse mortgage lenders in Canada?
Three of the four are federally regulated and supervised by OSFI, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions: HomeEquity Bank and Equitable Bank, both banks under the federal Bank Act, and Home Trust, a federally regulated trust company. Bloom is not a bank — it is licensed as a mortgage lender in each province where it operates. The mortgage brokers who arrange these mortgages are licensed provincially too, in Ontario by FSRA, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
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A free, no-obligation estimate compares every reverse mortgage lender in Canada for your exact age and home — with no impact on your credit.
Get my free estimate About the author
Richard Hopkins
Licensed Mortgage Broker · M16000896
Richard has worked in the mortgage business since 2013 — first as a mortgage agent, today a licensed mortgage broker — and leads the reverse mortgage practice at Homestead Financial — Dominion Lending Centres, an FSRA-licensed Ontario brokerage (#11711) with roots in the industry since 1999 and more than 2,500 mortgages funded. More about Richard →
This article is general information for Canadian homeowners, not personal financial, legal, or tax advice. Everyone's situation is different — please get advice on your own numbers before making a decision.