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# OSFI Guideline B-15 on Climate Risk Takes Effect for Canada's Systemically Important Banks
- URL: https://www.theglobalbanker.com/osfi-guideline-b-15-climate-risk-takes-effect-canada-d-sibs-2024/
- Published: 2024-10-30T20:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T14:12:33.000Z
- Description: Canada's OSFI has activated Guideline B-15 for the country's six domestic systemically important banks, mandating governance, risk management, and climate disclosure from fiscal year-end 2024.
- Author: TGB Editorial Team
- Tags: ESG, Americas, #archive

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has brought Guideline B-15, its climate risk management framework, into force for Canada's six domestic systemically important banks and internationally active insurance groups headquartered in the country, with the requirements applying from fiscal year-end 2024\. The guideline sets out supervisory expectations in two interrelated chapters, covering governance and risk management, and climate-related financial disclosures, including mandatory reporting on financed emissions attributed to lending and investment portfolios.

#### SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF THE GUIDELINE

Guideline B-15 covers both physical climate risks — the potential financial losses arising from extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and longer-term environmental shifts — and transition risks stemming from the economy's move towards lower-carbon operations. Covered entities are required to embed these considerations into board-level governance and senior management accountability frameworks.

Foreign bank branches operating in Canada are excluded from the guideline. Smaller federally regulated financial institutions have been granted additional transition time, with a fiscal year-end 2025 deadline for their compliance obligations. 

The guideline's disclosure expectations draw on the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the ISSB's climate disclosure standard, as well as on emerging guidance from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision regarding the prudential treatment of climate-related financial risks. Institutions are expected to demonstrate that their risk identification and scenario analysis capabilities are commensurate with the scale and complexity of their climate-related exposures.

#### SUPERVISORY OVERSIGHT

Institutions must demonstrate to OSFI through the supervisory review process that their boards exercise adequate oversight of climate risk exposures.