Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation – CDIC Filing for 2020
Background
The Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, or CDIC, is a Canadian federal Crown corporation created by Parliament in 1967. It insures Canadian deposits held in Canadian banks up to C$100,000 in case of bank failure. A list of CDIC members is available on their website.
Under the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Joint and Trust Account Disclosure Bylaw, a member institution has the obligation to annually notify certain trustee depositors about their disclosure requirements. The notification is to be sent during the month of April in each year and the trustee depositor must make its disclosure to the member institution by May 30 of each year. This bylaw is supported by the Law Society Rule 119.32:
A law firm that maintains a trust account at a depository that is insured by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation shall comply with the reporting and disclosure obligations as set forth in the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act.
Updating the information ensures that the deposit monies, if otherwise eligible for deposit insurance, will be covered by CDIC up to a maximum of $100,000 per beneficiary and will be insured separately from other deposits in your name. Without this information, the account deposit will only be eligible for coverage in total of $100,000.
This report requires name, address and balance attributed to each beneficiary. In the case of a law firm, the name and address can be substituted by an alpha numeric code as long as that code can be found in the firm’s up-to-date records.
CDIC and COVID-19
Given the unprecedented situation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, member institutions have been provided with an exemption from this requirement for this year. See the March 23 letter from CDIC’s CEO. This is one of the initiatives put in place to help “members allocate more of their resources towards directly supporting the needs of depositors during this highly challenging economic and financial environment.”
This means that if a trustee does not receive notification from its financial institution, they do not need to provide the beneficiary report. Any previous beneficiary information provided would remain on the records of the institution for deposit insurance purposes.
While this accommodation was granted to CDIC members, it was not intended to preclude any member from continuing to send the annual notification to its trustee depositors, nor from trustee depositors updating the CDIC member in regard to beneficiary information for a deposit account.
Trust Safety recommends that trustees, continue to provide updated beneficiary information to member institutions as trust account balances fluctuates, to ensure that the deposits you hold remain protected. Please contact your financial institution to identify how this information can be transmitted.
For more information on CDIC and deposit insurance, please visit CDIC’s website or call CDIC’s toll-free information line at 1-800-461-2342.