An Act to amend the Criminal Code Bill-C-274 (the Bill) entered
first reading in the House of Commons on May 11, 2021. The Bill
would amend1 the definitions of "criminal
rate" and "interest" in subsection 347(2) of the
Criminal Code, while also repealing section 347.1, which
had allowed certain exceptions for payday loans.
The Bill will be of interest to lenders, especially payday
lenders and other non-traditional lenders, as the amendments
proposed would lower the criminal rate at which interest charged or
received is under the Criminal Code from 60% to 30%.
Moreover, the Bill would repeal section 347.1 of the
Criminal Code. Consequently, payday lenders will no longer
have certain exemptions from the criminal rate of interest set out
under section 347. Moving forward, any lender, including a payday
lender or other lending entity, that is found to charge or receive
interest exceeding the criminal rate may be guilty of either an
indictable offence, liable to
