Our Bank Regulatory Practice provides advice to all types of major financial institutions, including banks, life insurance companies, property and casualty insurance companies, trust and loan companies, and securities dealers. Having been involved in the creation of numerous other federally regulated financial institutions, we advise on all aspects of financial institution activity—establishment, licensing, corporate governance, and foreign and domestic ownership—as well as on the products that are delivered and consumer protection considerations. Torys is primary regulatory counsel to three of Canada’s six largest banks and the three largest insurance companies. Torys is often retained by industry associations, such as the Canadian Bankers Association and the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, to advise on special projects and various policy initiatives. We also counsel clients on amendments to the financial institutions regimes in Canada and in pursuing new possibilities under these regimes.

Our senior partner, Blair Keefe, chairs the firm’s Bank Regulatory Practice and is one of the few lawyers in Canada who focuses exclusively on regulatory matters affecting financial institutions. We regularly assist clients in communicating with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Canada’s primary banking regulator, and other regulatory officials. We are frequently consulted by the Department of Finance on regulatory developments and legislative initiatives, and Blair Keefe sits on an advisory panel to OSFI, which is chaired by the assistant superintendent. From those roles and various interactions on behalf of clients, Torys has developed a strong working relationship with officials at all levels at the Department of Finance and OSFI. The wide-ranging expertise of our lawyers in the bank regulatory field has been leveraged by Carswell, one of Canada’s leading legal book publishers, which has chosen lawyers in our Financial Institutions Practice to edit Carswell’s Consolidated Bank Act and Regulations—a widely referenced text in the Canadian financial services sector.