In response to the recent turmoil in global markets, Canadian Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced this morning the creation of the Canadian Lenders Assurance Facility. The facility, to commence in November and run for six months, will offer insurance on the wholesale term borrowing of federally regulated deposit-taking institutions. Insurance will be available on certain debt issues with a term to maturity of at least three months. The stated intention of the initiative is to ensure that Canadian financial institutions "are not put at a competitive disadvantage when raising funds in wholesale markets given similar actions recently announced by other countries."
For more, see the Department of Finance's Backgrounder on the Canadian Lenders Assurance Facility.
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