OSFI's information-sharing committee gains FINTRAC Director; Superintendent gets broader powers to share and receive information

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

The Director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) has been added as a member of the financial institutions advisory committee, joining the Superintendent, the Bank of Canada Governor, the CDIC CEO, the Deputy Minister of Finance, and the Financial Consumer Agency Commissioner. The Superintendent now has explicit authority to share confidential supervisory information with any federal government agency or body for purposes related to supervising financial institutions, including matters involving threats to their integrity or security, or risks to national security. A new provision confirms, for greater certainty, that the Superintendent may receive any information relevant to the exercise of their powers or duties. The heading of the confidentiality section has been relabelled from 'Confidentiality' to 'Information,' reflecting the broader scope of these provisions. Financial institutions and their compliance and legal teams should be aware that regulators now have a clearer and broader basis for information exchange within the federal government, including with Canada's anti-money-laundering and financial intelligence agency.

Who this affects: federally regulated financial institutions · bank holding companies · insurance holding companies · compliance and legal teams at financial institutions · federal regulatory and government agencies