We had our pre-approval with RBC and we explained to the mobile mortgage specialist that 100% of our downpayment will be coming from my parents living in the Philippines. She said it is fine and just provide a 30 day bank statement from my parents and a gift letter.
Since she gave us a preapproval, we now have a budget in mind and offered on a house which got accepted.
We told her our offer got accepted and submitted the required documents like the gift letter and bank statement mentioned above us well as my and wife’s bank statement.
The next day she said she checked and its all good even the house appraisal and just need to finalize stuff then i will get the official go after 2 days.
The next day after saying it is all good, she called us at 10pm to say RBC is not currently accepting any money from the Philippines to be used as a downpayment for a house. She said because of anti money laundering policies affecting southeast asia. She said we need to come up with another way to fund the downpayment but our savings can’t cover it.
Good thing we had a financing condition and sellers were kind enough to give us 3 more days of extension.
Now we went to a mortgage broker and he said BMO seems to not have this policy but they have to have extra approval from their higher ups for money outside of Canada.
My question is, anyone know if this “banning” of money from the Philippines is all over Canada or is it bank specific? We just don’t want BMO saying it’s okay then we waive the condition then after they’ll say they can’t use the gift money for downpayment