FCAC Issues Final Version Of Product And Service Appropriateness Guideline

On February 24, 2022, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada ("FCAC") issued the final version of its Guideline on Appropriate Products and Services for Banks and Authorized Foreign Banks ("Guideline").  The Guideline follows a consultation process which ran from November 22, 2021 to January 6, 2022 and sets out key principles and expectations related to the offering and sale of appropriate bank products and services to consumers. 

Changes of note

The guideline was finalized with little change to the draft version issued for consultation in the fall. In the end, while most changes were minor, such as the capitalization of the first letters of key words (e.g., " Bank"), the correction of syntax errors and the use of the active rather than the passive voice, a handful of modifications were more substantive. These are summarized below.