Both bips and Lender Spotlight help mortgage brokers find lenders — but they work in fundamentally different ways. Here's when to use each.
The Core Difference
Lender Spotlight shows you lender criteria to review manually. You filter by deal type and province, then read each lender's guidelines and decide if your deal fits.
bips tests your specific deal against every lender automatically. You enter the deal details (or paste from an email), and bips calculates GDS, TDS, LTV, stress test, and matches against 40+ lenders — returning only the ones who would actually approve your deal.
Speed Comparison
For a typical deal (self-employed, 660 credit, $720K purchase, 20% down):
| bips | Lender Spotlight | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 1 min 45 sec | 42 minutes |
| Lenders found | 8 matching | 5 reviewed |
| Calculations | Automatic | Manual |
| Missed lenders | 0 | 3 (didn't check them) |
When to Use Each
Use bips for:
- Every deal — get instant matching across all 40+ lenders
- Complex scenarios (self-employed, multi-property, low credit)
- Batch processing renewals
- Time-sensitive deals
Use Lender Spotlight for:
- Deep-diving into a specific lender's policy manual
- Learning about new lender programs
- Reviewing exception guidelines
The Best Approach
Most successful brokers use both: bips as their primary tool for every deal (2 minutes), and Lender Spotlight for occasional deep research on specific lender policies. For the fuller picture of where a CRM fits alongside both, see placement engine vs CRM vs Lender Spotlight.
See the full bips placement engine page for pricing and features, or try bips free (3 free placements, no credit card).