Update to the Criminal Rate of Interest

Effective as of January 1, 2025, the Criminal Code of Canada is being updated to reflect changes to the maximum interest rate (contract rate plus fees as reflected in the form of APR) that can be charged on a loan in Canada. This is a Canadian Criminal Code issue, separate from any provincial regulations.

The new rules mean that the maximum APR allowed will be 35 percent.

Please pay close attention to all of your deals, especially those that are short-term or private. We encourage you to monitor this on any of your deals and reach out to any of your FC Compliance department if there are questions or concerns about how to handle a file that is close to or at the prescribed level.

We appreciate your attention to this matter.

***Please note, the above is for residential deals only. For commercial deals, the APR operates on a sliding scale, based on the amount of the loan. Commercial loans under $10,000 are subject to the same cap as residential mortgages; commercial loans from $10,000 to $500,000 maintain the current 48 percent APR cap; commercial loans over $500,000 are not subject to any upper limit on APR