Summary of the Corporate Plan
Executive summary
As Canada’s federal deposit insurer and resolution authority, CDIC operates in a rapidly changing and complex environment.
Canada’s economy is facing global and domestic headwinds, such as tighter monetary policy, higher interest rates, geo-political tensions, and lower housing affordability. Canadian businesses continue to navigate an uncertain operating environment with elevated input and borrowing costs. People in Canada are feeling the impacts every day.
Overall, CDIC members are in stable financial condition.
Although the 2023 bank failures in the United States and Switzerland were contained to those countries, these events underscored the importance of continued vigilance in regulatory oversight and supervision. They also reaffirmed the value of resolution planning and testing so CDIC can respond quickly to a variety of crisis scenarios and possible shocks to financial system stability. Moreover, they highlighted the importance of promoting public awareness of deposit insurance, which protects depositors and contributes to financial stability.
Every year, new financial products, services, providers, and transaction channels are launched. This presents new savings opportunities, but also new risks to depositors regarding deposit protection and coverage. In response, CDIC continues to innovate to protect financial futures in Canada. For example, CDIC is continuing its payout modernization project which aims to reimburse depositors more conveniently, quickly, and securely in the event of a member failure.
CDIC is also adapting to an evolving workplace environment. All organizations are facing increasing technological and cultural hanges, with continued competition for talent. CDIC will continue to advance its workforce strategies to prioritize attracting and retaining top talent, with a focus on ensuring its employees are representative of Canada’s diverse population. The Corporation will continue refining its approach to hybrid work, adapting technology, operations, and skills training across the organization to continue meeting the demands of the future in service of its mandate.
CDIC will focus on three strategic objectives for the 2024/2025 to 2028/2029 planning period, anchored to the Corporation’s mandate as federal deposit insurer and resolution authority:
1 — Resolution Readiness
Resolution readiness involves having the necessary people, data, processes, tools, systems, and financial capacity to resolve a member failure, if necessary. CDIC’s role among Canada’s financial sector oversight agencies intensifies during times of economic hardship or uncertainty. CDIC protects depositors and contributes to financial stability by being resolution ready.
CDIC will continue to strengthen its capacity for the early identification and surveillance of risks. It will also identify and assess resolution tools, policies, and mechanisms to strengthen the current deposit insurance and resolution framework and improve resolution capacity and capabilities through training and testing.
In 2024/2025, CDIC will remain focused on its new deposit insurance and payout system, a major transformational initiative that began in 2021. The project aims to enable depositors to access their funds more rapidly and securely in the event of a member failure. It will also enable CDIC to support new digital channels for communicating securely with depositors, member institutions, and deposit brokers.
In 2024/2025, CDIC will also continue working on the tri-agency Data Collection Modernization Initiative, alongside the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Bank of Canada. This will ensure CDIC has the necessary level of regulatory data to: support risk-intelligent decision-making abilities, proactively respond to changes in Canada’s risk environment, and align needs to support the respective mandates of participating agencies.
2 — Depositor Trust and Confidence
Reinforcing people’s confidence in the safety of their deposits is essential to protecting financial futures in Canada. CDIC is undertaking a Deposit Insurance Study to assess the scope and coverage of current deposit protection to ensure that it continues to meet depositors’ needs into the future. Results will be shared with the Minister of Finance for policy consideration.
Given the strong linkage between public awareness of deposit protection and the stability of the financial system, the Corporation will continue to focus on the level of people’s awareness of CDIC, its membership and coverage.
3 — Organizational Strength
Organizational strength involves preparing for, and responding to, internal and external factors that can impact CDIC’s people, culture, and technologies. CDIC is committed to having a workforce that reflects the depositors it serves and being an employer of choice. CDIC is focused on promoting an inclusive culture, and exceeding workforce representation statistics. CDIC will again seek to achieve the Great Place to Work™ certification in 2024/2025. CDIC achieves its vision through its people and strong culture.
CDIC will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its enterprise and corporate services through targeted technology investment, improved operational resiliency and augmented skills-training to ensure the Corporation can continue to fulfill its mandate.
From a financial perspective, CDIC’s operating budget will be $90.3 million in fiscal year 2024/2025, and its capital budget will be $1.2 million. CDIC maintains (ex ante) funding to cover possible deposit insurance losses. The amount of such funding is represented by the aggregate of CDIC’s retained earnings and the provision for insurance losses. CDIC’s ex ante fund was $8.6 billion (73 basis points of insured deposits) as at September 30, 2023.
The Corporate Plan anticipates and responds to the evolving operating environment and risks facing CDIC. It also supports the Corporation’s ability to achieve its mandate, while maintaining the public’s trust and confidence that their eligible deposits are protected.