Deposit Insurance at Canadian Credit Unions

Nickel at Five Cent Nickel posted recently about protecting credit union deposits in the United States. Nickel points out that the NCUA is a federal agency that adminsters the NCUSIF, which insures deposits at credit unions in a way similar to the protection provided by the FDIC.

I've written before about the equivalent insurance available to Canadians and Americans for assets held at a bank (CDIC / CDIC) or brokerage (CIPF / SIPC). I was interested to see yet another kind of asset protection, and I immediately started wondering whether Canada had equivalent protection for credit union members.

It turns out that there is similar protection in Canada, but it is structured differently.

Canada's credit unions and caisses populaires (as they are known in Quebec) are provincially incorporated, whereas credit unions in the U.S. are federally chartered entities. As a result of this, regulation of Canadian credit unions is almost exclusively at the provincial level. The CUCC is federally chartered and regulated, and receives some liquidity support from the Bank of Canada and the CDIC, and several provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan) have credit union centrals that are registered under both federal and provincial legislation.

Each province provides its own insurance on deposits at credit unions. The details by province are as follows:

• Alberta - Unlimited deposits protected under Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC)


• British Columbia - Deposits protected up to $100,000 under Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation (CUDIC)


• Manitoba - Unlimited deposits protected under Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation of Manitoba (CUDGC)


• Newfoundland - Deposits protected up to $250,000 under Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC)


• New Brunswick - Unlimited deposits protected under Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation (CUDIC)


• Nova Scotia - Deposits protected up to $250,000 under Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation (CUDIC)


• Ontario - Deposits protected up to $100,000 under Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario (DICO)


• Prince Edward Island - Deposits protected up to $60,000 under Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation (CUDIC)


• Quebec - Deposits protected under l'Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF - I couldn't find details on a limit to the coverage)


• Saskatchewan - Unlimited deposits protected under Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC)

Note that, as with protection provided by CDIC, eligible deposits must be in Canadian currency. There are some intricacies that vary by province, but in general the protection is comparable to that provided by CDIC (with the exception of the $60,000 limit in P.E.I.).