Canada’s banking regulator said the country’s mortgage stress test has helped prevent widespread defaults as interest rates rose this year, rebuffing calls to weaken or eliminate the measure amid a surge in homebuying costs, Bloomberg News reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions requires banks to ensure that borrowers can still qualify for their mortgages at a rate two percentage points higher than what the lender is offering, or 5.25% — whichever rate is higher at the time.

Canada's biggest pension fund, CPP Investments, has ended its effort to study investment opportunities in the volatile crypto market, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The reasons behind CPPI's abandonment of crypto research were not immediately clear. CPPI declined to comment but said it has made no direct investments in crypto. It referred to previous comments on cryptocurrency by its CEO, John Graham, in which he sounded a note of caution.

The Bank of Canada said decisions about future interest-rate increases will be guided by incoming economic data, though it’s still ready to move aggressively if needed, Bloomberg News reported. Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki, in a speech Thursday in Montreal, said policymakers expect adjustments to monetary policy will be “more data-dependent,” but kept the possibility of larger hikes on the table. “If we are surprised on the upside, we are still prepared to be forceful,” Kozicki said.

The Bank of Canada raised interest rates aggressively for a sixth straight time, while opening the door to pausing its hiking cycle, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem increased the benchmark overnight lending rate by 50 basis points to 4.25% on Wednesday, the highest since the beginning of 2008. The move was in line with the expectations of a slim majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Canada's exports rose in October, largely driven by pharmaceutical products, while imports were also up, largely as a result of a depreciation of the Canadian dollar, data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The country's trade surplus with the world grew to C$1.21 billion ($888.53 million) in October, Statistics Canada said, slightly above analysts' forecasts of a surplus of C$1.20 billion. Exports rose 1.5%, helped by higher exports of medicinal products as well as gold bars and coins to the United States, Statscan said. By volume, exports were up 0.1%.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said on Friday it would appeal a New York court's ruling in a lawsuit brought against the bank by an entity of U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, Reuters reported. Cerberus had alleged that CIBC defaulted on certain payments and is seeking damages of $1.067 billion. CIBC said it had satisfied all its obligations. The court issued a liability ruling against the lender, but has not determined how much it will have to pay. The parties will get to present arguments on the damages at a hearing on Dec. 19, CIBC said.

Royal Bank of Canada, which just struck its largest deal ever to expand in its home market, is getting a boost from its dominant position in the country’s retail banking landscape at a time when rising rates are making lending more profitable, Bloomberg News reported. Net interest income rose 24% to C$6.28 billion ($4.64 billion) in the fiscal fourth quarter, the Toronto-based company said Wednesday. Overall profit topped analysts’ estimates in the three months through October.

Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., has exited the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) restructuring process that followed its insolvency in February 2021, CBC reported. The university has continued to operate while dealing with its financial problems. Under the restructuring, it cut 76 programs in April 2021. As well, nearly 200 staff and faculty members lost their jobs. The CCAA was created for commercial enterprises to help them restructure after an insolvency.

Canada's economy performed much better than expected in the third quarter, but an early indication that growth stalled in the fourth quarter could prompt the Bank of Canada next week to slow its campaign to hike interest rates, Reuters reported. Canada's economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.9% in the third quarter, above expectations, while GDP most likely was unchanged in October after a 0.1% gain in September, Statistics Canada data showed on Tuesday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected third-quarter annualized growth of 1.5% and a gain of 0.1% in September.