The Reporter provides a monthly summary of Canadian federal legislative and regulatory developments of relevance to federally regulated financial institutions. It does not address Canadian provincial financial services legislative and regulatory developments, although this information is tracked by BLG and can be provided on request. In addition, purely technical and administrative changes (such as changes to reporting forms) are not covered.
December 2017
Institution | Published | Title and Brief Summary | Status |
Financial Stability Board ("FSB") | Published December 29, 2017 | Governance arrangements for the unique transaction
identifier ("UTI"): Conclusions and implementation
plan This FSB report sets out conclusions on the governance arrangements for UTI including:
|
Effective by end-2020. |
Finance | Published
(Gazette) December 27, 2017 |
Regulations Amending Eligible Mortgage Loan
Regulations, SOR/2017-270 and Regulations Amending Insurable Housing Loan
Regulations, SOR/2017-271 These amendments, which apply to private mortgage insurers and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation respectively:
|
Effective
October 17, 2016 for all high
ratio insured loans to qualify for mortgage insurance. Effective November 30, 2016 to apply relevant eligibility criteria for high ratio loan insurance to low ratio loan insurance. |
Financial Stability Board ("FSB") | Published December 21, 2017 | Key Attributes Assessment Methodology for the
Insurance Sector — Consultative Document This consultation sets out a proposed methodology for assessing the implementation of the Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions ("Key Attributes") in the insurance sector. The FSB decided to develop self-contained and free-standing methodologies tailored to the particular features of each sector in order to facilitate sector-specific assessments of the Key Attributes. |
Comments should be provided by February 28, 2018. |
OSFI [Federally Regulated Insurers] | Published December 20, 2017 | Public Disclosure Requirements related to Basel III
Leverage Ratio Since the phase-in of regulatory capital adjustments ends in Q1 2018 (i.e. transitional Tier 1 capital will be equal to all-in Tier 1 capital), transitional arrangements will no longer be relevant from that point onward. As a result, OSFI has removed from the guideline references to "transitional arrangements" and "all-in basis". The guideline is otherwise unchanged. |
Effective January 2018. |
BIS/ Basel [Applicable to banks] | Published December 20, 2017 | Stress testing principles — Consultative
Document This document proposes to replace the existing set of principles with a new streamlined version that states the principles at a high enough level to be applicable across many banks and jurisdictions and remain relevant as stress testing practices continue to develop. National authorities may wish to use the principles in designing their own stress testing rules, guidance or frameworks. |
Comments should be provided by March 23, 2018. |
OSFI [Federally Regulated Insurers] | Published December 14, 2017 | Guidelines E-19: Own Risk and Solvency Assessment
("ORSA") and A-4: Regulatory Capital and Internal Capital
Targets, Key Metrics Report ("KMR") for life insurers and P&C insurers OSFI has updated these documents to reflect the introduction of Guideline A: Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test ("LICAT") for life insurers, to reflect minor updates for property and casualty ("P&C") insurers, and to improve overall clarity. |
Effective January 1, 2018. |
FINTRAC | December 12, 2017 | Compliance program requirements under the Proceeds
of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act
("PCMLTFA") and associated Regulations FINTRAC's Guideline 4 Implementation of a Compliance Regime has been replaced by the Compliance program requirements. There are five required elements of a compliance program:
|
Effective |
BIS/ Basel [Applicable to banks] |
Published December 7, 2017 | The
regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures — Discussion
Paper The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's view is that the issues raised by the Task Force on Sovereign Exposures and the ideas outlined in this discussion paper are important, and could benefit from a broader discussion. However, lacking a consensus to make any changes to the treatment of sovereign exposures, the Committee has therefore decided to consult only interested stakeholders on the ideas presented in this paper. |
Comments should be provided by March 9, 2018. |
IAIS [Applicable to insurance companies] | Published December 7, 2017 | Activities-based approach to Systemic
Risk This interim public consultation paper is intended to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to give input into the development of an activities-based approach and feedback on the proposed steps that the IAIS will follow in its work on deriving activities-based policy measures. The paper does not include conclusive proposals on policy measures, as this will be the subject of the next phase of work in 2018. |
Comments should be provided by February 15, 2018. |
BIS/ Basel [Applicable to banks] | Published December 7, 2017 | Basel
III: Finalising post-crisis reforms A key objective of the revisions incorporated into the framework is to reduce excessive variability of risk-weighted assets ("RWA"). The revisions will help restore credibility in the calculation of RWA by:
|
Final version. |
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.