Bank Act (S.C. 1991, c. 46)

Marginal note:Business conducted from head office in Canada

• 522.03 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), if the head office of a foreign bank is located in Canada under paragraph 522(b), the foreign bank shall not conduct any business from that office with persons resident in Canada or with Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province except for the purpose of acquiring premises, supplies, services and staff for that office.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) If a foreign bank, immediately before the establishment of its head office in Canada under paragraph 522(b), held deposits of, or had loans outstanding to, persons resident in Canada or Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province, the foreign bank may repay those deposits and collect those loans through the head office in Canada.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (3) If a foreign bank controlled a bank or was a major shareholder of a bank immediately before the establishment of the foreign bank’s head office in Canada under paragraph 522(b), the foreign bank may continue to carry out from the head office in Canada any activities that were carried out from the head office of the foreign bank in relation to the bank before the establishment of the head office in Canada.

Marginal note:Permitted investment — foreign bank

• 522.04 (1) A foreign bank that does not have a financial establishment in Canada may acquire or hold control of, or a substantial investment in, a Canadian entity, so long as, by virtue of the acquisition, neither the foreign bank nor any entity associated with the foreign bank controls or becomes a major owner of

  • (a) a Canadian entity referred to in any of paragraphs 468(1)(a) to (i); or

  • (b) a Canadian entity that is a financial services entity.

• Marginal note:Permitted investment — associated entity

  (2) An entity that is associated with a foreign bank and that does not have a financial establishment in Canada may acquire or hold control of, or a substantial investment in, a Canadian entity, so long as, by virtue of the acquisition, neither the entity nor the foreign bank, nor any other entity associated with the foreign bank, controls or becomes a major owner of

  • (a) a Canadian entity referred to in any of paragraphs 468(1)(a) to (i); or

  • (b) a Canadian entity that is a financial services entity.

Marginal note:Permitted Canadian commercial branch

522.05 A foreign bank, or an entity that is incorporated or formed otherwise than by or under an Act of Parliament or of the legislature of a province and that is associated with a foreign bank, that does not have a financial establishment in Canada may maintain a branch in Canada or engage in or carry on business in Canada so long as less than

• (a) the prescribed portion — or if no portion is prescribed, 10 per cent — of its business in Canada, determined in the prescribed manner, consists of one or more of the activities referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (g) of the definition “financial services entity” in subsection 507(1); and

• (b) the prescribed portion — or if no portion is prescribed, 10 per cent — of its business outside Canada, determined in the prescribed manner, consists of one or more activities referred to in any of

  • (i) paragraphs (a) to (g) of the definition “financial services entity” in subsection 507(1), and

  • (ii) paragraph (h) of that definition, except under prescribed circumstances.