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. The revised transaction instructions relate to certain approvals under Part XII of the Bank Act.  Part XII addresses the activities, in Canada, of foreign banks and entities associated with them.

OSFI’s update of the transaction instructions should be welcomed. We frequently consult OSFI’s transaction instructions on behalf of our clients who are applying or are considering applying for a regulatory approval; it is helpful to the client when the transaction instructions are up-to-date as it is less likely that there will be surprises from OSFI with respect to application requirements as the application progresses.

The following transaction instructions have been revised: