Coronavirus

On 21 to 23 October 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held its final quarterly plenary of 2020 as a virtual event. The discussions over three days mostly focussed on Strategic Initiatives reacting to the Covid-19 pandemic and progress made on country specific processes. The FATF also provided an update on their…

Financial institutions have had to deal with two challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first challenge is financial – how to address and mitigate the sharp drop in the value of financial assets or loss of liquidity. The second challenge is operational – how to address the risk of failure of resources…

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) recently addressed a letter to deposit taking institutions (DTIs), including domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) and small and medium-sized banks (SMSBs), regarding the use of Pillar II capital buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key takeaways are below:

  • Capital expectations framework for DTIs. The current DTIs

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In our earlier post, we discussed the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ (OSFI) newly proposed measures intended to support federally regulated financial institutions and improve the stability of the Canadian economy and financial system in the face of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. OSFI has recently published additional announcements for sector-specific…

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) recently provided guidance (the Guidance) to reporting entities in connection with their continuing obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Guidance, FINTRAC acknowledged that reporting entities may have to reassign and reprioritize their internal resources in response to the pandemic, which may in turn affect…

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has announced measures intended to support federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs) and improve the stability of the Canadian economy and financial system in response to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and current market conditions:

  • Domestic Stability Buffer set to 1.00% of risk weighted assets.

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