On December 5, 2019, the Office of the Superintendent of
Financial Institutions (OSFI) released the final version of the
updated Guideline B-6: Liquidity Principles (Guideline).
The Guideline applies to banks and federally regulated trust and
loan companies (Institutions). It outlines a set of updated
liquidity risk management principles that supplement the
quantitative liquidity metrics set out in OSFI's Liquidity
Adequacy Requirements (LAR Guideline). The revised Guideline takes
effect on January 1, 2020, replacing the current version, which was
last updated in 2012, before the implementation of the LAR
Guideline.
The updated Guideline confirms that foreign bank branches are
not subject to OSFI's liquidity guidelines and are expected to
follow the Basel-compliant liquidity risk management policies of
their head office. However, the Guideline notes that OSFI may
require a foreign bank branch to provide quantitative reports on
their operations in Canada as they
