OSFI issues a separate capital guideline for mortgage insurers
News release - Ottawa -
We have archived this page and will not be updating it.
You can use it for research or reference.
Today the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) issued a new capital guideline for mortgage insurers called the Mortgage Insurer Capital Adequacy Test (MICAT). The MICAT sets out the regulatory framework within which OSFI assesses whether a mortgage insurance company maintains adequate capital. The guideline comes into effect on January 1, 2019.
The new guideline consolidates OSFI’s current capital requirements for mortgage insurers into a single document, incorporating elements from OSFI’s January 1, 2017 Advisory on Capital Requirements for Federally Regulated Mortgage Insurers and relevant chapters of the 2018 Minimum Capital Test for Federally Regulated Property and Casualty Insurance Companies.
In developing this new guideline, OSFI simplified the calculation of insurance risk, streamlined the requirements for single-family residential mortgages, included accommodations for IFRS 16 - Leases, and specified credit risk factors for securitized assets.
Quote
“Having a separate guideline for mortgage insurers allows OSFI to better tailor its capital framework to the mortgage insurance industry,” said Carolyn Rogers, Assistant Superintendent.