Change in Eligibility Requirements for Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) Accepted as Collateral for the Bank of Canada's Standing Liquidity Facility

Since August 2007, the Bank of Canada has undertaken a number of initiatives to support its ability to provide liquidity to the financial system. One of these initiatives, first announced in December 2007, has been to expand the range of acceptable collateral for its Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF). This includes lowering the minimum pool size for National Housing Act Mortgage-Backed Securities (NHA MBS) accepted as SLF collateral (announced 5 June 2008) and the addition of U.S. Treasury securities (announced 25 June 2008) and ABCP (announced 31 March 2008) to the list of SLF-eligible securities.

At the time that it announced the eligibility criteria and conditions for accepting ABCP as SLF collateral, the Bank indicated that there were outstanding issues related to previously securitized assets and that a review was ongoing. After further study and consultation with market participants, the Bank has revised its eligibility criteria to permit exposure to certain assets that were securitized prior to being acquired by the ABCP conduit, provided that specific program and transparency requirements are met. In addition, other eligibility criteria for ABCP have been amended to provide greater clarity.

All changes are effective immediately and can be viewed in the Bank of Canada's updated list of Securities Eligible as Collateral under the Bank of Canada's Standing Liquidity Facility.