Standing Term Liquidity Facility

Learn about the facility and its reporting, key contacts and related notices.

Facility details

Liquidity shocks can stem from various sources, including operational incidents such as cyber attacks, system failures and natural disasters. Under the Standing Term Liquidity Facility (STLF), the Bank of Canada can provide loans to eligible financial institutions in need of temporary liquidity support if the Bank has no concerns about the institution’s financial soundness.

How to participate

Eligible financial institutions must be members of Payments Canada that are prudentially regulated either federally or provincially.1 The Bank must have no concerns about an institution’s financial soundness. For more details about the STLF, financial institutions can .

Financial institutions seeking to make the necessary legal arrangements for the STLF should contact their respective prudential regulator to express interest.

Eligible financial institutions can request an advance by submitting an STLF application by each time they want to use the facility. Additional items to include with the application vary, depending on what collateral is being used to secure the advance:

• Those wanting to pledge marketable securities to secure the advance should also submit the marketable securities collateral form.
• Those interested in assigning mortgage loans to secure the advance should include the blanket assignment of mortgage loans form and a mortgage loan schedule with their application.

Each time an eligible financial institution requests an advance, the Bank reviews the STLF application along with any additional documents provided. The Bank also assesses the financial soundness of the institution. All advances are at the discretion of the Bank. However, if the Bank has no concerns about soundness, it will typically proceed with approving the advance.

To ensure readiness, the Bank periodically conducts operational tests with approved counterparties based on its own schedule. The Bank will reach out to institutions to request an operational test.

For operational details, please see the full terms and conditions for this facility.

Standing settlement instructions

As part of their STLF application, eligible financial institutions must provide the Bank with details for the disbursement of the STLF advance.

As described in the loan agreement, most counterparties that have received an advance can repay it through Lynx. Settlement instructions are provided in the loan agreement.

Reporting

Every Friday, outstanding STLF transactions are reported at an aggregate level under “Advances” on the Bank’s weekly balance sheet. This line item also includes any outstanding advances under the Standing Liquidity Facility and Emergency Lending Assistance. Outstanding STLF advances are also reflected at an aggregate level in the Bank’s monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements.

Note: For confidentiality, the names of individual financial institutions are not published.

Key contacts

Financial Markets Department and Financial Stability Department
Bank of Canada