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ARTICLE · 11 NOVEMBER 2026

2026 Federal Budget: Highlights Affecting Financial Services

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The 2026 Federal Budget (“Budget 2026”) proposes to grow the Canadian financial services sector, while introducing multiple checks on possible risks raised by new bank entrants and innovative technology. It also builds out existing policy measures to support digital innovation and combat fraud. There are various other measures that may be of interest to financial service providers in banking, insurance and payments.

CanadaFinance and Banking
Koker Christensen
Koker Christensen
Craig Bellefontaine
Craig Bellefontaine
Tara Newman
Tara Newman
Isabelle Savoie
Isabelle Savoie
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The 2026 Federal Budget (“Budget 2026”) proposes to grow the Canadian financial services sector, while introducing multiple checks on possible risks raised by new bank entrants and innovative technology. It also builds out existing policy measures to support digital innovation and combat fraud. There are various other measures that may be of interest to financial service providers in banking, insurance and payments.

Increasing Competition in Financial Services

As part of the “Whole-of-Government Competition Plan” outlined in Budget 2026, the federal government proposes various reforms to expand competition in the financial sector.

The federal government announced a “secondary competition objective” for OSFI, to “help ensure that competition considerations, such as proportionality, compliance burden, and market impacts, are more clearly and consistently reflected in how OSFI regulates and supervises financial institutions.”

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