Canada’s Largest Six Banks Designated As Systemically Important By OSFI

In conjunction with A framework for dealing with domestic systemically important banks issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) has issued an Advisory, “Domestic Systemic Importance and Capital Targets – DTIs.” The Advisory identifies each of Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada as systemically important banks in Canada.

As indicated in the BCBS framework, a bank’s systemic importance is related to the impact that its failure could have on the domestic economy. The criteria applied by OSFI in determining a bank’s systemic importance included the following: