Deputy Superintendent Radiskovic participates in a fireside chat at IIF-CBA Canada Forum 2026

Check against delivery

Moderator:

Authorities in the US, the UK, and the EU have been undertaking significant efforts in modernizing and simplifying their post-crisis regulatory frameworks. Has Canada undertaken similar efforts? What have been the main priorities?

Deputy Superintendent, Angie Radiskovic:

• Yes, OSFI has modernized and continues to modernize its regulatory and supervisory approach from a position of strength. Canada's financial system remains resilient, and that resilience allows financial institutions to compete, innovate, and support households and businesses through uncertainty.
• Over the past two years, we have advanced major reforms to our supervision, policy development, approvals, and data and analytics. This work is intentional and sustained. It is about keeping our prudential regulation and supervision aligned with changing financial, economic, technological, and security conditions. These actions have helped federally regulated financial institutions remain resilient through sustained uncertainty while also strengthening their ability to take reasonable risks.  Examples of our reform work include:
  • We launched our policy review in November 2024. We rescinded 20 guidelines and removed 32 documents from the guidance library.
  • We now hold Quarterly Release and Industry Days providing transparency and predictability by issuing (draft and final) guidance, consultations, and announcements on predetermined dates.
• Through the Supervisory Framework Renewal, we have adopted a more risk-based and tailored approach to supervision, enhanced our data and analytics capabilities and ultimately helped increase our ability to deliver SMART supervision, which focuses supervisory attention on the risks that matter most and reduces unnecessary burden wherever possible.
• We work closely with our provincial regulatory partners through regular bilateral engagement and forums such as the Heads of Agencies Committee, supported by established information-sharing arrangements and ongoing dialogue that helps us identify emerging issues and coordinate our oversight of Canada's financial system
• In addition, we've continued to strengthen our approach in areas where risks are increasing, such as integrity and security risks. We engage regularly with FINTRAC to improve coordination and reduce duplication. With FINTRAC now part of the Financial Institutions Supervisory Committee, we also enable senior-level dialogue on AML-related issues.
• Now, to be clear, modernization isn't about reducing prudential standards. It's about making regulation clearer, more proportionate, and more targeted to today's risks, maintaining resilience and public confidence while also creating the conditions for innovation and competition.

Moderator:

As regulators around the world place greater emphasis on growth, innovation, and international competitiveness in their regulatory agendas, how should financial regulators strike the right balance between maintaining resilience and ensuring that regulation does not unduly constrain economic growth?

Deputy Superintendent, Angie Radiskovic:

• We don't see resilience and growth as competing objectives. A resilient financial system creates confidence that allows institutions to invest, innovate, and support long-term economic growth.
  • Growth and competition are relevant considerations within OSFI's prudential mandate. They inform how we think about the design, calibration, and application of requirements, but they do not replace our focus on soundness, resilience, and financial stability.
• Earlier this year we released a technical note on bank capital and how Canada compares internationally. Key findings were:
  1. Canadian banks hold capital well above supervisory expectations.
  2. Canada's capital regime is comparatively proportionate and balanced.
  3. Canada's banks are among the most consistently profitable globally.
• We continue to assess whether requirements remain appropriately calibrated to risk, including where targeted adjustments can support competition and growth without creating material risks to financial stability. Examples of our most recent actions include:
  • We have indefinitely paused key elements of the final Basel III reforms, known as the Basel Endgame, to protect the competitiveness of Canadian banks.
  • In June, we lowered the Domestic Stability Buffer to 3.0% so Canada's largest banks can deploy more capital while preserving a substantial buffer.
  • In June, we also launched our Streamlined Approvals Framework for targeted new entrants. This new framework gives eligible new entrants, including entities with innovative or emerging banking models and credit unions, a quicker, clearer, and more predictable path to becoming federally regulated financial institutions.
  • In final Capital Adequacy Requirements Guideline, we lowered capital requirements for construction loans and made them more risk sensitive, and reduced the risk weights for loans to small and medium sized corporate entities (SMEs):
    • Lowered the risk weight for unrated exposures to corporate SMEs to 75% from 85%
    • lowered the base risk weight for low-rise residential real estate from 150% to 130% to better reflect the lower risk nature of low-rise residential builds.
    • introduced a 90% risk weight for residential Acquisition, Development and Construction (ADC) (both high and low-rise) where the level of pre-sales is equal to or greater than 75%.
    • allowed institutions to treat ADC projects with loan-to-value ratios (LTVs) lower than 80% according to the income-producing commercial real estate treatment if a certificate of occupancy has been issued.
• Since becoming the Deputy Superintendent for Supervision, I've been focused on resetting our supervisory agenda, including a review of our risk appetite statement so we can be more focused, more efficient, and concentrate our efforts on the risks that matter most.