Capital Adequacy Requirements (CAR) Guideline

Document Properties

  • Type of Publication: Guideline Impact Analysis Statement
  • Date: January 2022

I. Background

OSFI’s CAR Guideline provides a framework for assessing the capital adequacy of banks, bank holding companies, and federally regulated trust and loan companies (collectively, referred to as “institutions”).

II. Problem Identification

The CAR Guideline should be updated periodically to ensure that capital requirements continue to reflect underlying risks, developments in the financial industry, and evolving international standards.

III. Objectives

OSFI’s objective is to ensure that the CAR Guideline remains comprehensive, fit-for-purpose, and that its requirements reflect the underlying risks facing institutions.  Specifically, these revisions:

  • reflect OSFI’s domestic implementation of the final Basel III reforms, as set out in the consolidated Basel FrameworkFootnote 1 published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), with modifications to take into account the unique characteristics of the Canadian market;
  • improve the risk sensitivity of the capital rules to provide the right incentive structure for deposit-taking institutions; and
  • incorporate changes to the capital requirements applicable to small and medium-sized deposit-taking institutions which are more tailored to reflect the size and complexity of those institutions. These requirements are encompassed within OSFI’s new SMSB Capital and Liquidity Requirements Guideline.

IV. Consultations

OSFI issued the draft revised CAR Guideline for public consultation in March 2021.  A summary of the material comments received from industry stakeholders and an explanation of how they have been addressed has been published along with the final Guideline.

V. Recommendations

It is recommended that the CAR Guideline be updated to ensure capital requirements continue to reflect the underlying risks facing institutions as well as market developments and evolving international standards.

VI. Implementation & Evaluation

The implementation date of the final CAR (other than CVA risk and market risk) will be fiscal Q2-2023Footnote 2.  The implementation date of the revised CVA risk and the market risk chapters of the CAR Guideline (i.e., Chapters 8 and 9) will be fiscal Q1-2024Footnote 3. OSFI will monitor adherence to the Guideline through its ongoing supervision of institutions.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Basel Framework

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Footnote 2

February 1, 2023 for institutions with an October 31st year end and April 1, 2023 for institutions with a December 31st year end.

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Footnote 3

November 1, 2023 for institutions with an October 31st year end and January 1, 2024 for institutions with a December 31st year end.

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