Canada’s finance minister unveiled proposed changes to the ownership rules for banks, seeking to make it easier for mid-sized lenders to gather deposits and grow.
By Derek Decloet
(Bloomberg) — Canada’s finance minister unveiled proposed changes to the ownership rules for banks, seeking to make it easier for mid-sized lenders to gather deposits and grow.
Currently, once a bank in Canada reaches $12 billion in equity, it must be widely held — no shareholder can own 20% or more. The government plans to increase that threshold to $25 billion in equity, according to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s budget documents.
That would allow so-called challenger banks to get larger while still under the control of a single investor or small group of shareholders.
The smallest of the six largest domestic banks, National Bank of Canada, has about $35 billion of shareholders’ equity.
The government also plans to change the ownership rule for the Canadian divisions of foreign banks. They won’t need to have a public float if the equity of the Canadian unit is less than $8 billion, provided the parent bank is widely held and listed on a foreign stock exchange.
Officials said the moves are part of an effort to bolster medium-sized domestic and foreign firms that can provide competition to the Big Six banks, which dominate branch banking, mortgage lending and many other parts of the financial system.
“Canada offers an attractive world-renowned capital environment, and the financial sector is integral to getting projects financed,” the government said in its budget documents. “At the same time, it would benefit from being a more competitive market.”
Ottawa will also introduce legislation to increase deposit insurance by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. to $250,000 per account. The current limit is $100,000.
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Last modified: November 5, 2026
