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In forceDeposit-taking institutions: capitalLast checked 11 November 2026

Capital adequacy (Basel III)

A regulatory return listed by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Canada.

Collects the data to calculate the institution's risk-based capital ratios, with the details of the calculation. For domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) it also collects the data to calculate the risk-based Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) ratio. Source

Official title: Basel Capital Adequacy Reporting (BCAR) (BA)

The facts

Who files
OSFI's reporting requirements table lists it for: banks; trust and loan companies; banks or trust and loan companies that are subsidiaries of banks or of federally incorporated trust and loan companies. Not required from: foreign bank branches. Source
How often
Each fiscal quarter. Source
Deadline
Within 30 days. Subject to the Late and Erroneous Filing Penalties (LEFP) framework. Source
Format
XML, Excel. Filed through the Regulatory Reporting System (RRS). OSFI publishes the return as an Excel sample, a technical specification workbook, a sample XML file and an XSD schema. The BCAR FAQ says the return data file is collected in XML format. Source
How it is filed
Filing routes recorded for the OSFI: Regulatory Reporting System (RRS); Regulatory Data Hub (RDH). See how firms file with the OSFI.
Status
In forceOSFI has published the 2027 BCAR (sample return, technical specification, XML and XSD, October 2026) alongside the 2026 version that took effect in Q1 2026. Filed in the Regulatory Reporting System (RRS). OSFI's Data Collection Modernization initiative will replace RRS with a new platform, the Regulatory Data Hub (RDH); OSFI says the launch is now targeted for spring 2027 and asks filers to keep using RRS until then. Financial filing for banks and trust and loan companies moves to RDH in Release 2; OSFI says more details on financial returns will come in 2027. Source
Legal basis
Group
Deposit-taking institutions: capital

Templates (87)

The tables and forms inside the return. Plain name first, the OSFI's code in brackets.

  • Ratio Calculations (10.010)
  • Simplified Risk-Based Capital Ratio Calculations for Category III SMSBs (10.011)
  • Summary of Risk-weighted Assets (RWA)s and Exposures at Default (EAD) (10.020)
  • Summary of Capital Floor Risk-Weighted Assets (10.030)
  • Counter-Cyclical Capital Buffer (CCyB) (10.040)
  • Counter-Cyclical Capital Buffer (CCyB) for Category III SMSBs (10.041)
  • Off-balance Sheet Exposures Excluding Derivatives and Securitization Exposures (10.050)
  • Gross Exposures by Original Obligor and by Ultimate Guarantor (10.060)
  • Balance Sheet Coverage by Risk Type and Reconciliation to Consolidated Balance Sheet (10.070)
  • Summary of All Insured Canadian Mortgages and HELOCs (10.080)
  • Summary of All Standardized Approach Exposures Subject to Currency Mismatch Multiplier (10.090)
  • Schedule 10.100 - Summary of Crypto-asset Exposures (10.100 (New Schedule))
  • Capital and Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) Elements (20.010)
  • Qualifying Capital Issued Out of Subsidiaries (20.020)
  • Allowance for Impairment: Capital Treatment (20.030)
  • Minimum Capital Required for Operational Risk (30.010)
Show all 87 templates
  • Sovereign (40.010)
  • Public Sector Entities (PSEs) (40.020)
  • Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) (40.030)
  • Bank (excluding Covered Bonds) (40.040)
  • Covered bonds (40.050)
  • Securities Firms and Other Financial Insititutions Treated as Bank (40.060)
  • Large Corporate (40.070)
  • Mid-sized Corporate (40.080)
  • Small and Medium-Sized Entities (SMEs) Treated as Corporate (40.090)
  • Securities Firms and Other Financial Instititutions Treated as Corporate (40.100)
  • Specialized Lending (40.110)
  • Subordinated Debt, Equity and Other Capital Instruments (40.120)
  • Regulatory Retail - Transactors (40.130)
  • Regulatory Retail - Revolvers (40.140)
  • Regulatory Retail - Indirect Auto (40.150)
  • Small Business Entities (SBE) treated as Regulatory retail (40.160)
  • Regulatory Retail - All Other Exposures (40.170)
  • Non-regulatory Retail (40.180)
  • General Residential Real Estate excl. HELOCs (40.190)
  • General HELOCs (40.200)
  • Income-Producing Residential Real Estate excl. HELOCs (40.210)
  • Income-Producing HELOCs (40.220)
  • Residential Real Estate Exposures that do not meet expectations related to B-20 (Mortgages) (40.220a)
  • Residential Real Estate Exposures that do not meet expectations related to B-20 (HELOCs) (40.220b)
  • General Commercial Real Estate (CRE) (40.230)
  • Income-Producing CRE (40.240)
  • Land Acquisition, Development and Construction (ADC) excluding HVCRE (40.250)
  • Reverse Mortgages (40.260)
  • Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) (40.270)
  • Equity Investments in Funds (40.280)
  • Other credit risk-weighted assets (40.290)
  • Securitization exposures subject to the standardized approach or the external ratings based approach (60.010)
  • Counterparty Credit Risk of Trading Book Exposures (70.010)
  • Sovereign (50.010)
  • PSEs (50.020)
  • MDBs (50.030)
  • Bank (excluding Covered Bonds) (50.040)
  • Covered Bonds (50.050)
  • Securities Firms and Other Financial Institutions Treated as Bank (50.060)
  • Large Corporate (50.070)
  • Mid-sized Corporate (50.080)
  • SMEs treated as Corporate (50.090)
  • Securities Firms and Other Financial Institutions Treated as Corporate (50.100)
  • Specialized Lending - Project Financing (50.110)
  • Specialized Lending - Object Financing (50.120)
  • Specialized Lending - Commodity Financing (50.130)
  • Specialized Lending - HVCRE including ADC (50.140)
  • Specialized Lending - Slotting Approach (50.150)
  • Regulatory Retail - Transactors (50.160)
  • Regulatory Retail - Revolvers (50.170)
  • Regulatory Retail - Indirect Auto (50.180)
  • SBEs treated as Regulatory Retail (50.190)
  • Regulatory Retail - All Other Exposures (50.200)
  • Non-regulatory Retail (50.210)
  • General Residential Real Estate excl. HELOCs (50.220)
  • General HELOCs (50.230)
  • Income-Producing Residential Real Estate excl. HELOCs (50.240)
  • Income-Producing HELOCs (50.250)
  • Residential Real Estate Exposures that do not meet expectations related to B-20 (Mortgages) (50.250a)
  • Residential Real Estate Exposures that do not meet expectations related to B-20 (HELOCs) (50.250b)
  • General CRE (50.260)
  • Income-Producing CRE (50.270)
  • Land ADC excluding HVCRE (50.280)
  • Equity Investment in Funds (50.290)
  • Securitization exposures subject to IRB approval (60.020)
  • Summary of Banking Book Securitization Exposures (60.030)
  • Counterparty Credit Risk of Trading Book Exposures (70.020)
  • Derivative Contracts (70.030)
  • Central Counterparty (CCP) credit RWAs (70.040)
  • Credit Valuation Adjustments (CVA) RWA (80.010)
  • Minimum Capital Required for Market Risk* (90.010)

Schedules (worksheets) in 2026-bcar-rnfpb-rtn-rel-2025-10-31-en.xlsx, named from the workbook's table of contents or schedule titles. Source

Validation rules

7,962 rules, as counted from the OSFI's published material. They are written for people to read; software cannot run them as published. Source

How they are written: Rule ID and Rule Description columns in the technical specification workbook. Descriptions are written as semi-formal expressions (for example "BA:1514 between[(M4:2357) - 10, ...]"), but there is no separate formula column..

The 2027 technical specification (bcar27-rnfpb27-tech-spec-data-2026-10-30-en.xlsx) lists 7780 conventional rules and 214 dimensional rules.

The rules, on osfi-bsif.gc.ca

How they were counted

Rows with a Rule ID in the 2026 BCAR technical specification (bcar26-rnfpb26-tech-spec-2026-05-04-en.xlsx): 7748 in 'Conventional Rules' and 214 in 'Dim Rules'. The Comments column marks 57 of them as disabled.

Counts are in the OSFI's own unit, so they are not comparable with other regulators' counts.

Public data

Published firm by firm. OSFI publishes data from this return institution by institution, with industry totals, as CSV files on the Government of Canada open data portal: "BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active)" in the Banks dataset; "BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active)" in the Trust companies dataset; "BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active)" in the Loan companies dataset; "BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active)" in the Retail associations dataset. Source

Where it is published (CSV)

  • OSFI financial data: Banks (open.canada.ca)

    Firm by firm · CSV (long format: one row per institution, period and data point address, with English and French labels)

    Institution-by-institution data, with industry totals, from OSFI's returns for banks, one CSV file per return: M4 - Consolidated Balance Sheet (Active); BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active); E3 - Return of Allowances for Expected Credit Losses (Active); LR - Leverage Requirements Return (Active); P3 - Consolidated Statement Of Income, Retained Earnings & AOCI (Active). The dataset is updated monthly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-17) and also holds 2 CSV files for returns OSFI no longer collects, a data dictionary and a user manual. The dataset page gives 2026 publication dates: monthly returns on or about the 15th of each month; quarterly returns about a week after the due date (Q1 due May 15, published May 23; Q2 due Aug 14, published Aug 22; Q3 due Nov 14, published Nov 22; Q4 due March 1, published March 19). Source

  • OSFI financial data: Trust companies (open.canada.ca)

    Firm by firm · CSV (long format: one row per institution, period and data point address, with English and French labels)

    Institution-by-institution data, with industry totals, from OSFI's returns for trust companies, one CSV file per return: M4 - Consolidated Balance Sheet (Active); BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active); E3 - Return of Allowances for Expected Credit Losses (Active); LR - Leverage Requirements Return (Active); P3 - Consolidated Statement Of Income, Retained Earnings & AOCI (Active). The dataset is updated monthly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-17) and also holds 1 CSV files for returns OSFI no longer collects, a data dictionary and a user manual. The dataset page gives 2026 publication dates: monthly returns on or about the 15th of each month; quarterly returns about a week after the due date (Q1 due May 15, published May 23; Q2 due Aug 14, published Aug 22; Q3 due Nov 14, published Nov 22; Q4 due March 1, published March 19). Source

  • OSFI financial data: Loan companies (open.canada.ca)

    Firm by firm · CSV (long format: one row per institution, period and data point address, with English and French labels)

    Institution-by-institution data, with industry totals, from OSFI's returns for loan companies, one CSV file per return: M4 - Consolidated Balance Sheet (Active); BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active); E3 - Return of Allowances for Expected Credit Losses (Active); LR - Leverage Requirements Return (Active); P3 - Consolidated Statement Of Income, Retained Earnings & AOCI (Active). The dataset is updated monthly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-17) and also holds 1 CSV files for returns OSFI no longer collects, a data dictionary and a user manual. The dataset page gives 2026 publication dates: monthly returns on or about the 15th of each month; quarterly returns about a week after the due date (Q1 due May 15, published May 23; Q2 due Aug 14, published Aug 22; Q3 due Nov 14, published Nov 22; Q4 due March 1, published March 19). Source

  • OSFI financial data: Retail associations (open.canada.ca)

    Firm by firm · CSV (long format: one row per institution, period and data point address, with English and French labels)

    Institution-by-institution data, with industry totals, from OSFI's returns for retail associations, one CSV file per return: M4 - Consolidated Balance Sheet (Active); BA - BASEL III Capital Adequacy Reporting - BCAR (Active); E3 - Return of Allowances for Expected Credit Losses (Active); LR - Leverage Requirements Return (Active); P3 - Consolidated Statement Of Income, Retained Earnings & AOCI (Active). The dataset is updated monthly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-16) and also holds 1 CSV files for returns OSFI no longer collects, a data dictionary and a user manual. The dataset page gives 2026 publication dates: monthly returns on or about the 15th of each month; quarterly returns about a week after the due date (Q1 due May 15, published May 23; Q2 due Aug 14, published Aug 22; Q3 due Nov 14, published Nov 22; Q4 due March 1, published March 19). Source

Official documents (16)

The OSFI's own files, with the size and SHA-256 fingerprint of each as downloaded on 11 November 2026, so anyone can tell whether a copy is the same version.

Sources

Every page and document this return's facts were read from.

Knowing exactly what is collected, in what format and under which rules is the first step to real-time supervision. Line4 builds SupTech software for financial regulators that runs checks like these as each return arrives.

Line4's text and records here are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit: “Source: Line4 regulatory submissions library (CC BY 4.0), https://www.line4.ai”. The regulators' documents, forms, taxonomies, rules and data belong to them: see OSFI's reuse terms. This describes what regulators publish. It is not legal or regulatory advice: always rely on the regulator's own text.

Last checked 11 November 2026.