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In forceLife insurers: capitalLast checked 11 November 2026

Life insurer capital test, quarterly (LCQ)

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

The data to calculate a life insurer's capital ratios under OSFI's Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) guideline: available capital, and capital required for credit, market, insurance, segregated fund guarantee and operational risk. Foreign branches report margin ratios under the Life Insurance Margin Adequacy Test (LIMAT). Source

Official title: Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT)/Life Insurance Margin Adequacy Test (LIMAT) Quarterly (LCQ)

The facts

Who files
OSFI's reporting requirements tables list it for: Canadian life insurers (including insurance holding companies and non-operating life companies); foreign life insurers; Canadian fraternal benefit societies; foreign fraternal benefit societies. Source
How often
Quarterly, plus an annual filing at year end. Source
Deadline
Quarterly filing: within 45 days. Annual filing: within 60 days. Subject to the Late and Erroneous Filing Penalties (LEFP) framework. Source
Format
XML, Excel. The instructions say the quarterly LCQ return is filed "(XML format)" with OSFI via RRS; the annual filing adds Excel versions together with the XML file. Section V also lists a special Excel file (OSFI911). 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 forceFiled 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 insurers moves to RDH in Release 3; OSFI says more details on financial returns will come in 2027. Source
Group
Life insurers: capital

Templates (17)

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

  • LICAT Ratios - Summary Calculations (10.100)
  • Eligible Deposits - Capital Requirements for credit risk and market risk (10.500)
  • Available Capital - Tier 1 (20.100)
  • Available Capital - Tier 2 (20.200)
  • Available Capital - Deductions (20.300)
  • Negative Reserves (20.600)
  • Credit Risk - Total (30.000)
  • Market Risk - Total (50.000)
  • Market Risk - Interest Rate Risk (50.100)
  • Insurance Risk - Total (60.000)
  • Segregated Fund Guarantee Risk (Standard Approach) - Total (70.300)
  • Segregated Fund Guarantee Risk (Simplified Option) - Total (70.400)
  • Operational Risk - Risk Factor (80.000)
  • Participating, Adjustable and Policyholder Deposits and Group Business Credits - Total (90.000)
  • Diversification Credit - Total (110.000)
  • LIMAT Ratios - Summary Calculations (120.000)
Show all 17 templates
  • Limat - Available Margin (120.100)

Schedules (worksheets) in 2026-lcq-licat-tsav-rtn-en.xlsx, named from the workbook's table of contents or schedule titles. Source

Validation rules

1,083 rules, as counted from the OSFI's published material. Software can run them exactly as published. Source

How they are written: Excel workbook, one row per rule (Rule ID, Rule Type, Description and a Formula or Expression column in OSFI's RRS rule syntax, for example EqualWithinThreshold([D1010010010],([D1010010040]+0.7*[D1010010060]+0.7*[D1010010070])/[D1...).

The rules, on osfi-bsif.gc.ca

How they were counted

Counted 1083 rows with a rule in the 'Validation rules' sheet of lcq-licat-tsav-validation-2026-02-02-en.xlsx (1083 error).

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: "LCQ - LICAT (Active)" in the Life insurance companies dataset; "LCQ - LICAT (Active)" in the Fraternal benefit societies dataset. Source

Where it is published (CSV)

  • OSFI financial data: Life insurance 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 life insurance companies, one CSV file per return: LCA - LICAT (Active); LCQ - LICAT (Active); LF1 - Life Core Financial Statement Return (Active); LF2 - Life Supervisory Quarterly Return (Active); LF3 - Life Supervisory Annual Return (Active). The dataset is updated quarterly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-11) and also holds 8 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: Fraternal benefit societies (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 fraternal benefit societies, one CSV file per return: LCA - LICAT (Active); LCQ - LICAT (Active); LF1 - Life Core Financial Statement Return (Active); LF2 - Life Supervisory Quarterly Return (Active); LF3 - Life Supervisory Annual Return (Active). The dataset is updated quarterly (last updated on the portal 2026-10-11) and also holds 8 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 (7)

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.