ntroduction The priority of governments and financial authorities around the world in 2023, including in Canada, has been to reduce inflation while monitoring and addressing financial sector risks. The Bank of Canada estimates that inflation will likely remain near 3% through 2024, given strong household spending levels supported by tight labour markets, population growth and high levels of accumulated household savings.

Close economic ties and interdependence between the US and Canada have been bolstered by free trade policies and intensified global competition, paving the way for continued opportunities for US businesses to tap into the Canadian market. These opportunities have resulted in an active cross-border lending market. In light of this, US lenders who are lending into Canada may encounter, and should be aware of, Canadian-specific legal issues and considerations.

As the COVID scourge continues its march across the lives and livelihoods of Canadian individuals and businesses, the federal government has broken the glass and deployed into the economy a historically unprecedented amount of emergency funding in an effort to provide a financial bridge through the crisis to affected enterprises.

• Draft regulations implementing Canada’s “bail-in” solvency support regime for banks came into effect on September 23, 2018.
• The bail-in regime essentially requires that banks maintain “embedded contingent capital” in the form of bonds that convert automatically to equity in the event that the issuing bank has ceased or is about to cease to be viable.
• Key to the regime is the concept of “total loss-absorbing capacity”, or TLAC, which is the amount of embedded contingent capital that a bank will now be required to maintain (on a consolidated basis).
• As discussed b

• Le règlement mettant en œuvre le régime de « recapitalisation interne (émission) » au soutien de la solvabilité des banques au Canada est entré en vigueur le 23 septembre 2018.
• Ce régime de recapitalisation interne exige essentiellement des banques qu’elles maintiennent des « fonds propres d’urgence intégrés » sous forme d’obligations pouvant être automatiquement converties en actions si jamais elles cessent d’être viables ou sont sur le point de ne plus l’être.
• La clé du régime est le concept de capacité totale d’absorption des pertes

2017 saw a number of interesting and important developments in Canadian insolvency and restructuring matters. Some of the highlights (which, in certain instances, will continue as issues in 2018 and beyond) are set forth below:

1) Trends: Fewer CCAA Filings and Retail Insolvencies in the News

On June 16, 2017, Canada’s Department of Finance and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) published for comments a package of draft regulations and guidelines setting out the final details of Canada’s bail-in framework and related total loss absorbency capacity (TLAC) capital standard for Canada’s six domestic systemically important banks (DSIBs). The bail-in regulations are expected to be finalized in the fall of 2017 and will take effect 180 days later.

On July 14, 2009, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released its decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Reliance Insurance Company, an application regarding the allocation of surplus arising from the liquidation of the Canadian branch (Reliance Canada) of U.S.-based Reliance Insurance Company (Reliance U.S.), a property and casualty insurer that was itself in liquidation.

Close economic ties and interdependence between the US and Canada have been bolstered by free trade policies and intensified global competition, paving the way for continued opportunities for US businesses to tap into the Canadian market. These opportunities have resulted in an active cross-border lending market. In light of this, US lenders who are lending into Canada may encounter, and should be aware of, Canadian-specific legal issues and considerations.