Compliance with Regulatory and Legal Frameworks

Members of the Canadian Lenders Association must rigorously adhere to all applicable laws, regulations, and standards designed to protect consumers and businesses from predatory lending practices. This commitment extends but is not limited to:

1. Consumer Protection Laws: All lenders must ensure that their lending practices are fair, transparent, and do not exploit consumers. This includes providing clear information about loan terms, rights to rescind, and avoiding any deceptive practices that could mislead consumers regarding the cost or terms of credit. Marketing materials and communications must be truthful, non-misleading, and respectful of consumer rights. Lenders will not engage in aggressive or deceptive marketing tactics that could coerce or mislead consumers into making financial decisions that are not in their best interest.
2. Consumer Reporting Laws: Lenders must responsibly handle credit reporting and inquiries, ensuring accuracy and fairness in how consumer credit information is collected, used, and shared. The privacy and integrity of consumer credit data must be upheld in accordance with legal standards. When possible lenders must report their respective lending tradelines to Equifax and Transunion Canada.
3. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): In the context of promoting financial products or services, lenders must comply with CASL by obtaining consent before sending commercial electronic messages, providing clear identification in messages, and offering an easy mechanism for recipients to opt-out of future communications.
4. Privacy Laws: Lenders must protect the privacy and security of personal and financial information of their clients. This involves complying with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and any applicable provincial privacy laws. The handling of personal information must be done with the utmost care, including collection, storage, use, and disclosure, ensuring individuals’ privacy rights are respected.
5. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) Regulations: Financial institutions must implement robust systems and controls to detect, prevent, and report money laundering and terrorist financing activities, adhering to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) regulations.
6. Ethical and Social Responsibility: Beyond compliance with legal requirements, lenders are encouraged to adopt ethical lending practices that promote financial inclusion, avoid discriminatory practices, and contribute positively to the communities they serve.
7. Payday and Predatory Lending: Consumer Lenders must not participate in Canada’s payday loans industry in any province or territory in Canada.

Compliance with Regulatory and Legal Frameworks for the Home Improvement Sector:

Members must rigorously adhere to all applicable laws, regulations, and standards designed to protect consumers and businesses from predatory lending practices. This commitment extends but is not limited to:

1. Door Knocking: Members will abide by all legislative and regulatory requirements of both federal and provincial legislation, including but not limited to, not engaging in “door knocking” to sell home fixture equipment.
2. Asset Depreciation: Members offering rental services for home fixtures will have a schedule for a depreciating asset over the lifespan of that asset that is fair for consumers.

Lenders are expected to maintain a culture of compliance and ethics that permeates all levels of their operations.

Where possible, the CLA supports the pursuit of regulatory consistency amongst the various Canadian Provinces that offer similar regulations so that our members who operate across multiple Provinces can do so as efficiently as possible. We believe that to the extent that regulators can pursue consistency across the provinces, the results will drive costs down for lenders, thus supporting long-term innovation, while ultimately leading to healthy growth, viability and competition in the industry. This ultimate array of innovation and competition in the industry is critical to providing necessary, and viable, credit options for consumers in Canada.