6 Things You Should Know About Deposit Insurance in Canada

This is a sponsored post written by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. This has been reviewed and approved by Moneywehave.com

One of the most common questions I get is what happens to your deposited money if a bank fails? Well the good news is that you’re covered up to $100,000 thanks to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). To explain what deposit insurance is, I partnered directly with CDIC who provided this guest post on how your money is protected.

We all work hard to save money for our future – to buy a home, to pay for our children’s education, for retirement or for a dream trip. And we keep these savings in banks and other financial institutions across Canada. But have you ever stopped to wonder what would happen to your money if the financial institution holding it were to fail? Enter the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, a federal Crown corporation that protects deposits in all its member banks in the event of a failure.

If you’ve never heard of CDIC or deposit insurance, you’re not alone. Just over half of all adults in Canada are aware of CDIC, and even fewer millennials are aware. But deposit insurance is an integral part of our country’s economic system and it contributes to our overall financial stability. Those who know how deposit insurance works can trust CDIC to make sure their hard-earned savings are there when they need them.

Here are 6 things you need to know about CDIC deposit insurance:

It’s free and you don’t need to sign up

CDIC protects eligible deposits in its member institutions, up to a maximum of $100,000 per coverage category. You do not need to sign up or pay any premiums. Anyone with eligible deposits in one of CDIC’s member banks is protected, as long as these deposits are in Canadian funds. Citizenship or country of residence of the depositor doesn’t impact coverage.

Banks can fail and they have

In CDIC’s 50-year history, they’ve handled the failures of 43 of their members! These failures affected over 2 million Canadians, but not a single dollar under CDIC protection was lost. The most recent failure was in 1996. While it hasn’t happened in decades, it can happen and CDIC works hard to be ready for this possibility.

CDIC has over 80 members

From Canada’s biggest banks, to small trust companies across the country, over 80 financial institutions are members of CDIC. This means that savings in each of these members are protected separately from the other members. Curious if your bank is a member? You can see the full list here. Alternatively, you can look for CDIC’s membership sign on your bank’s web site. Note: some CDIC members have trademark companies which are not distinct members, but which may fall under the coverage of their parent company (Such as EQ Bank falling under Equitable Bank). If your financial institution isn’t on this list, you can contact them and inquire about their CDIC membership.

Not everything is covered

While deposit insurance protects eligible deposits in your own name, joint accounts, trust accounts, TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs and more; not everything is covered. CDIC does not protect investment products like stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Here is a full breakdown of what is and isn’t covered.

The “limit” really isn’t the limit

CDIC protects up to $100,000 (including principal and interest) per deposit category in each member. There are 7 categories. For example, deposits in your own name are protected separately from joint accounts. Deposits in RRSPs, TFSAs and more also each receive their own coverage. If you have a chequing account, a joint savings account with a spouse, a joint account with a parent, a TFSA and an RRSP, you could have protection of up to $500,000 – and this assumes all these accounts are with the same member. If you also have a TFSA and a savings account in another member bank, that’s another $200,000 of protection! So there are endless ways to ensure your money is protected by CDIC. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how CDIC covers various accounts.

You can calculate your coverage

So you have several financial products in one or more member banks. Now you want to know how much of your money is safe? No problem. CDIC has an online estimator to help you calculate your coverage. Try it out!

Learn more about CDIC

Now that you’ve learned a little about CDIC and deposit insurance, you’ll be better informed when making financial decisions for yourself and your family. You can follow CDIC on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for more coverage info, helpful tools and videos. Happy saving!

About Guest

Money We Have is one of Canada's most trusted sources for all things related to personal finance and travel.

25 Comments

  1. smayer97 on November 20, 2018 at 12:26 PM

    One category that is vague is joint accounts. I understand that with a joint account, only $100K is covered for that account. What is not clear are the following 2 scenarios:
    1. if there are 2 joint accounts at the same bank with the same people. Can each still qualify for $100K or are both accounts considered as one amount?
    2. if there are 2 joint accounts at the same bank with different people. Again, can each still qualify for $100K?

    If anyone has accurate answers, please share.

    • Barry Choi on November 20, 2018 at 4:42 PM

      I’m not sure about the answer, but you could reach out to CDIC via Twitter as they tend to respond to inquiries.

  2. Will on May 15, 2019 at 7:18 PM

    Although we are covered for 100% of to a maximum of $100,000, do we get 100% or do we get a percentage of that?

  3. Nikhil on January 21, 2020 at 3:27 AM

    Thank you for the article.

    As a pointer to anyone who visits the website next, CDIC has a calculator on their website where one can check how much would be covered in what account, with combinations of banks, account types and account holder combinations.

  4. JonasK on March 3, 2020 at 3:04 AM

    Interesting and important…

    I’ve heard that if the major banks failed we’d all be in such bad shape that, the CDIC could hardly help. There’s no magical panacea to be found in a truly disastrous economic crisis.

    • Barry on August 1, 2022 at 2:57 PM

      Can you get special insurance if you have say $400,000.00 in bank account. In Canada.

      • Barry Choi on August 1, 2022 at 5:40 PM

        Barry,

        No, only up to $100,000 per eligible account.

  5. Dr.Fine on March 26, 2020 at 5:29 PM

    How about small or medium size businesses , so if they have 120 K , they are only covered 100 K , correct ? or ?

    • Barry Choi on March 27, 2020 at 8:28 AM

      Dr. Fine,

      Correct, but that’s per eligible account. I believe the Government of Canada may soon introduce legislation to up that amount, but that’s just talks right now.

  6. Paul on April 15, 2020 at 5:26 PM

    does the CIDC cover, for example, a strata that wants to buy a GIC so that their CFR does not constantly lose money to inflation?

    • Barry Choi on April 15, 2020 at 5:37 PM

      Paul,

      GICs are covered but only up to $100,000. If the strata is buying GICs, the odds are they’re buying much more than that limit.

  7. Martino on April 24, 2020 at 9:32 PM

    I understand that MANULIFE FINANCIAL is not covered by CDIC
    Does that mean if Manulife FINANCIAL fails or goes bankrupt all funds are lot to the account holders?
    Thanks

  8. john w jamieson on April 29, 2020 at 11:24 AM

    CDIC is useless for anyone needing to hold savings in excess of $100k unless they are willing to give multiple banks a piece of the action. It is a scam. I hazard to guess that they could not cover all the savings should multiple banks fail. A recent article on FDIC the american equivalent was found to have assets woefully inadequate to cover losses if the banks failed in the USA.So I would not rely on the word of CDIC or the government to insure your losses.

  9. angela talbot on May 27, 2020 at 12:52 PM

    I just called CDIC and was told a registered GIC of $100k and a savings account of $100k, both at the same financial institution, are each covered by their insurance.
    But if it is a non-registered GIC and a savings account, both at the same financial institution leads to only one of them being covered.
    Just thought this might help someone else who is wondering…

  10. Our Life Financial on July 22, 2020 at 7:52 AM

    I did a post recently about this on my Instagram account. You’ve mentioned RRSPs and TFSAs are covered, but it’s important for people to be aware that stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, and cryptocurrency are not covered. Therefore if you hold stocks or ETFs in your investment accounts as most would (and should!) they are technically not covered. Which is scary to think about, as many people have hundreds of thousands invested. It’s a bit misleading on their website.

  11. John McConchie on August 4, 2020 at 3:12 PM

    Barry, CDIC now covers US dollar deposits and GICs over 5 years in duration.

    • Barry.Choi on August 5, 2020 at 6:13 AM

      Hey John,

      Good catch. This is an older post that I wrote before the recent CDIC changes. I need to add this to my list of things to do.

  12. Carolyn Forest on October 20, 2020 at 5:49 PM

    Thank you for the article Barry.
    We’ve seen from the 2008 US financial crisis that it’s not unreasonable to expect multiple banks to fail nearly simultaneously when a large scale crisis occurs. Assuming for a moment that all member institutions covered by the CDIC were to fail in the same year, can the CDIC still cover 100% of their insured holdings up to promised $100,000? Or, would they be forced into a situation that they could pay only a fraction of what was insured? ex. You receive only 20 cents on every dollar insured?

    • Bruce P on November 20, 2020 at 5:31 PM

      Is there a time limit to make a claim?
      If there has been fraud withdrawals how far back can you go to be covered?

      • Barry Choi on November 20, 2020 at 8:53 PM

        Bruce,

        CDIC covers you if your bank fails. If there has been fraudulent activity in your account, you need to contact your bank to open an investigation.

        • Bruce p on November 20, 2020 at 9:02 PM

          We did but they said there was only a 90 day window to claim and unfortunately it had been going on for a year

  13. Sam on September 30, 2022 at 9:45 AM

    Is there any other way to get insurance for the excess of 100000 in your bank account?

  14. Rob B on February 15, 2023 at 7:57 PM

    Answer to Carolyn Forests question?
    “We’ve seen from the 2008 US financial crisis that it’s not unreasonable to expect multiple banks to fail nearly simultaneously when a large scale crisis occurs. Assuming for a moment that all member institutions covered by the CDIC were to fail in the same year, can the CDIC still cover 100% of their insured holdings up to promised $100,000? Or, would they be forced into a situation that they could pay only a fraction of what was insured? ex. You receive only 20 cents on every dollar insured?”

Leave a Comment





Get a FREE copy of Travel Hacking for Lazy People

Subscribe now to get your FREE eBook and learn how to travel in luxury for less