The Financial Stability Report (FSR) is the Bank of Canada's annual assessment of the Canadian financial system. It is a Governing Council product that started as the semi-annual Financial System Review in December 2002 and took its current name in 2024. It covers 4 areas: households and businesses, banks and deposit-taking institutions such as credit unions, non-bank financial intermediaries, and financial markets.
It draws on bank regulatory filings, Bank calculations, Statistics Canada data, financial statements, market data and the Financial System Survey. It is not a forecast or an economic outlook, and it does not cover market infrastructures or payment providers, which have separate reports. As it is not a survey, it states no sample size.
Each edition assesses the 12 months before the May publication and appears once a year in May at 10:00 Eastern Time on the Bank's website. An embargo lock-up ends at release time. A media background briefing starts at 08:30 Eastern Time, followed by an 11:00 press conference with the Governor and Senior Deputy Governor in the auditorium.
The release package includes the opening statement, a press conference webcast, downloadable chart data in CSV, JSON and XML, and Financial System Survey highlights. Each edition is a standalone assessment that supersedes earlier discussion, with no stated revision policy. It reads as qualitative judgment rather than a forecast or a trading level.
The Report tracks 6 groups of drivers that interact across sectors.
In the 9 May 2024 edition the headline said Canada's system stayed resilient as market participants adjusted to higher rates. Business insolvencies ran against that headline, at about double the pre-pandemic average in March 2024. Filings concentrated in small firms, ran broad across industries and were driven by bankruptcies.
The pattern looked like catch-up after below-average filings from 2020 to 2022, sitting near a 45-degree line across 19 industries. That mix reflected phased-out pandemic support and clearing court backlogs. Small insolvent firms form a small share of bank business loan books, so bank credit held up.
Average large-bank CET1 capital reached 13.4% in the first quarter of 2024, about 2 points above its pre-pandemic level. Liquidity coverage stood at 135%, up from 132%, and loss allowances ran 20% higher. Credit spreads stayed below their average since the 2008 to 2009 crisis while benchmark equities hit all-time highs in 2024.
Key point: Do not read it as a forecast or rate signal like the Monetary Policy Report. It judges risks to stability, not the likely path.
No historical data available
