To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will resume posting material following the festive period on 9 January 2023 although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading
Institutional investors collaborate with each other when communicating with investee companies’ management regarding, for example, ESG matters. Such shareholder collaboration leads to challenges in multiple legal areas. Minimising such legal risk is key. NRF’s Shareholder Collaboration Tool allows Institutional investors to confidently collaborate, while reducing the burden on legal teams to manage the associated risks. … Continue Reading
Avis du ministère de la Justice américain sur une violation en vertu de la FCPA – est-ce que cela se produirait au Canada? En janvier, le ministère de la Justice américain (Ministère) a rendu un avis à une société américaine sur la question de savoir si le fait de payer un tiers pour la libération … Continue Reading
In January, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an opinion to a US company on whether paying a third party for release of its employees would breach the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).[1] The DOJ said it would not bring charges against the company if it made a payment to prevent imminent threat to … Continue Reading
To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Easter. We will resume posting material on 26 April although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading
To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will resume posting material following the festive period on 6 January 2021 although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading
Webinar on 2 September 2020 at 8:45am to 10:00am (BST) We are evolving our successful 40 minute briefings into webinars for financial services professionals. This includes senior management and those in legal, compliance and risk teams who have or are developing financial services expertise. The webinars will be led by senior members of our financial … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has recently issued a ruling regarding the regulatory treatment of Limited Recourse Capital Notes (LRCNs) which are currently being adopted as new financial instruments by Canadian banks. An LRCN is a subordinated note issued by a federally regulated financial institution (FRFI) that is secured by preferred … Continue Reading
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 … Continue Reading
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 measures … Continue Reading
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 … Continue Reading
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. Originally, … Continue Reading
Further to our previous post which introduces the concept of open banking and how Canada is approaching it, the Department of Finance, through its Advisory Committee on Open Banking (the Committee), has completed its initial review (the First Phase Review) which focused on: (i) the ways in which open banking would provide meaningful benefits and … Continue Reading
Starting June 13, 2019, private companies that are incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act (the “CBCA”) will have to establish a securities register detailing all “individuals with significant control” over the corporation (the “ISC Register”) in accordance with Bill C 86, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2. The purpose of the ISC Register … Continue Reading
In the 2019 federal budget, the government has proposed new legislation to help implement a new retail payments oversight framework that will enable retail payment services providers (PSPs) to continue to offer innovation in services, while remaining reliable and safe. The global payments landscape is rapidly changing as innovative technologies are challenging traditional payments systems. … Continue Reading
Open banking is a safe and secure technology that allows consumers to enable banks to disseminate their information to third party services providers. As a concept, open banking is more developed in other countries such as the United Kingdom (the UK) and Australia. In Canada, the concept is steadily evolving and is still being deliberated … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has issued its final version of the Corporate Governance Guideline (CGG). The CGG sets out OSFI’s expectations for boards of directors of federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs). The CGG applies to all FRFIs other than the Canadian branch operations of foreign banks and insurance companies. The … Continue Reading
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently released two notices on the implementation and regulation of the Canadian bail-in regime, namely: CSA Staff Notice 46-309, in connection with the regulation of Bail-in Debt (as defined below); and CSA Staff Notice 81-331, in connection with the implications of the bail-in regime on investment fund issuers, subject to … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has released proposed revisions to the Leverage Requirements (LR) guideline in order to align with upcoming modifications to Chapter 4 (Settlement and Counterparty Risk) and Chapter 7 (Securitization) of the Capital Adequacy Requirements (CAR) guideline. The LR set out the framework for the leverage ratio, which … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has released a discussion paper on the proposed implementation of the final Basel III reforms in Canada. The reforms were published in December 2017 and, in summary, seek to: Enhance credibility in the calculation of risk-weighted assets. Improve the comparability and transparency of banks’ capital ratios. … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has provided greater transparency to the market surrounding the Domestic Stability Buffer (the DSB) currently held by Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) in a bid to guard against Pillar 2 risks associated with systemic vulnerabilities. OSFI revealed last week that D-SIBs must hold an extra cushion, … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the federal financial institutions prudential regulator, recently addressed the issue of a cap on issuance of covered bonds which presently stands at 4% of a bank’s total assets. OSFI is now taking a hard look at this limit and is doing so in the context of … Continue Reading
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the federal financial institutions prudential regulator, has posed seven revised transactions instructions on its website. Transaction instructions set out OSFI’s requirements for information and documents in connection with applications for approval under federal financial institutions statutes, and may include guidance from OSFI related to the application. … Continue Reading
