Consultation: Draft Liquidity Adequacy Requirements (LAR) Guideline

The proposed revisions to the LAR Guideline (2026) are aimed at enhancing the financial resilience and stability of federally regulated deposit-taking institutions. They build on changes made in LAR guideline 2025 and reflect the innovation and evolution of financial markets while helping to align Canada with international practices.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is proposing to:

• introduce new funding categories to better reflect liquidity risks from emerging funding sources including:
  • structured notes
  • deposits sourced through non-bank financial intermediaries
• clarify expectations for financial products with optional provisions and uncertain maturity dates (early redemption characteristics and associated liquidity implications)
• remove references to Bankers’ Acceptances and the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR), considering the cessation of the CDOR in June 2024.

The proposed changes impact key regulatory liquidity metrics, including the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) and the Net Cumulative Cash Flow (NCCF).

Why it’s important 

The LAR Guideline ensures that federally regulated banks, bank holding companies, and trust and loan companies can manage their liquidity risk, support withdrawals, and meet payment and settlement obligations, even during periods of instability or stress. In our Annual Risk Outlook, we have identified funding and liquidity as one of the top risks for 2025-2026 due to a heightened geopolitical risk, uncertain financial markets, rapid cash outflows through digitization, and a changing and evolving risk environment.

Way forward

Your feedback will help inform final changes to the LAR Guideline (2026) and inform next steps in this process. Please provide your feedback to Consultations@osfi-bsif.gc.ca by July 22, 2025.

The final version of the LAR Guideline (2026) along with a non-attributed summary of comments received with our responses will be published on our website in January 2026. The Guideline comes into effect in spring 2026.

Contact us

For more information or for help submitting your feedback, please contact Consultations@osfi-bsif.gc.ca