Statement from the Superintendent on OSFI’s continued regulatory efficiency

Today, Peter Routledge, Superintendent of Financial Institutions, released the following statement:

“Last year, OSFI established a discipline of continuously refining our regulatory guidelines and advisories, looking for opportunities to remove unnecessary burden. In keeping with this discipline, today OSFI issued an industry letter outlining revisions to its policy plan.

In this updated plan, OSFI will seek out regulatory efficiencies that enable financial institutions to take risks, compete effectively, and contribute to growth in the Canadian economy. We will concurrently ensure that in seeking those efficiencies, we do not detract from the resilience of the financial institutions we supervise.

The publication of our industry letter follows other key actions taken by OSFI to improve regulatory and supervisory effectiveness, such as:

1. Spring 2024 – OSFI began its Policy Modernization initiative that continuously and comprehensively reviews our regulatory guidance to remove those that are outdated or redundant. In April 2025, this resulted in rescinding 20 guidelines and industry advisories. As part of this, we also refined our policy release schedule to improve transparency and predictability to regulated constituents.
2. Winter 2025 – OSFI paused Basel III implementation of the “output floor” to ensure that competitive balance prevails for Canadian banks that compete in the international banking system and to provide Canadian banks with transparency and predictability in OSFI’s capital expectations.
3. Spring 2025 (ongoing) – As released in our Annual Risk Outlook, we undertook a number of policy shifts that modified the cadence of our regulatory intensity so that our work, and the attention of regulated entities, remain focused on the most important risks in the financial system today.
4. Ongoing – Through regular meetings, conversations, and correspondence, regulated constituents share with us their ideas on opportunities to improve regulatory and supervisory practices. After careful analysis, we act on those opportunities that we find to be beneficial and prudent.

We will announce further rescissions of guidelines and advisories in the fall of 2025, in keeping with our habit of continually and proactively streamlining the supervisory and regulatory environment. Our actions will remain deliberate, focused, and strategic, mindful that resilience in the financial system is essential to a strong economy and helps create conditions for sustained economic growth.

Additional details on our expected policy work will be shared in the fall Semi-Annual Risk Outlook to be released on October 9, 2025.

This effort to recalibrate our regulatory framework is not a singular event. Rather, it is part of who we are as a modern regulator. It will be ongoing, as we continuously enhance our risk response, clarify our regulatory expectations, and improve the overall efficiency of our oversight. This work also supports the Government of Canada’s Red Tape Review.

Canadians must have trust in the institutions that anchor our financial system. OSFI is prepared to act when risks emerge—as we leverage a strong foundation of public confidence in the Canadian financial system to support Canada’s economic growth.”