Canada Gives Tokenized Deposits Bank-Like Treatment Under 2027 OSFI Rules

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Canada's banking regulator, has finalized its 2027 crypto-asset capital and liquidity guideline. This framework allows qualifying tokenized deposits to remain classified as tokenized traditional assets when they preserve ordinary deposit rights and risks.

Banks can represent existing deposit claims on distributed ledgers without automatically creating a separate prudential category. However, this treatment is conditional on the token's legal structure, redemption terms, and holder protections.

The guideline closely follows Basel Committee standards for tokenized financial instruments. It places qualifying tokenized bank claims, including deposits, in Group 1a when credit and market risks remain equivalent.