CCUA regularly monitors the legislative and regulatory environment for items of importance to the credit union sector. The topics below have been identified as current priorities and do not reflect CCUA's exhaustive list.
As the national voice for Canada’s credit unions, we advocate for their interests and values across the country. Our 2025 strategic priorities provide a proactive roadmap to shape the environment in which credit unions operate, strengthening the credit union system, and ensure credit unions are well-positioned to serve Canadians now and into the future.
Please note this is not an exhaustive list, and our strategic priorities are designed to be adaptable to emerging developments in the sector. See here for CCUA’s full 2025 Advocacy Workplan.
Our Strategic Priorities
Relief Program Participation: Although credit unions are significant players in Canada’s financial services sector and the biggest challengers to banks, they are often overlooked when government develops relief initiatives or loan programs. CCUA will continue to advocate for credit unions to be fully included in new initiatives and programs, including economic support programs in response to the U.S. tariffs.
Federal Initiative Participation: CCUA will continue to advocate for credit union inclusion in other programs and initiatives involving Canadian financial institutions.
Federal Growth: For a credit union looking to expand its business via the federal framework, the current process is unclear, time consuming, and arduous. For years, CCUA has been advocating for a clear, predictable, and efficient pathway for credit unions to join the federal sector via (i) continuance, (ii) amalgamations (i.e., the dual application process), (iii) asset purchases, and (iv) plans of arrangement.
Extra-Provincial Growth: CCUA will engage legislators, regulators, and credit unions and will analyze currently legislative barriers, identify potential solutions, and develop targeted advocacy efforts. CCUA will also continue its engagement with regulators and credit unions in provinces and regions that have indicated a desire to explore inter-provinciality.
As part of this engagement, CCUA has developed a paper entitled, Breaking Down Provincial Barriers for Credit Unions. The paper looks at the elimination of interprovincial restrictions, current barriers to extra-provincial operations, and an overview of possible solutions.
Mergers and Competition: Consolidation is critical to the growth of the sector, yet this appears to not be recognized by the Competition Bureau, which tends to unfairly scrutinize credit union mergers that have no negative impact on competition in Canada’s national financial sector. CCUA will be advocating for the Competition Bureau to review mergers in the context of the larger financial sector to which they belong so that provincial credit union mergers aren’t stalled.
Capital Modernization: CCUA is engaging with the federal Department of Finance (DoF) and provincial Ministries of Finance to advocate for options for credit unions to access capital and enable them to raise qualifying regulatory capital more efficiently and cost-effectively.
CCUA will continue advocating for credit union access to emergency liquidity facilities, including the Bank of Canada’s Emergency Lending Assistance (ELA) and Standing Term Liquidity Facility (STLF).
Regulatory Burden: CCUA is strongly focused on the growing challenge of regulatory burden, recognizing its impact on credit unions’ ability to grow, innovate, and effectively serve their members and communities. Our approach will be collaborative and data-driven. In the first half of 2025, CCUA will engage the sector through surveys, interviews, and roundtables to gather sector-specific input that will be published in a report in Q3 2025. CCUA will also develop an advocacy toolkit for credit unions, including briefing notes, member impact summaries, and policy recommendations.
Anti-Scam and Anti-Fraud: In response to the growing threat of scams and fraud targeting Canadians, CCUA is actively engaged in a national anti-scam initiative and working closely with the Canadian Bankers Association and others in a cross-sector initiative that brings together financial institutions, telecom providers, and regulatory bodies.
This work is in addition to our participation in key DoF and FINTRAC working groups to influence discussions on fraud detection, AML regulations, and other emerging compliance obligations. Further, CCUA supports Canada’s preparations for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Mutual Evaluation Review (MER).
Check out CCUA’s Regulatory Compliance page for or a host of resources relating to Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Spam Legislation, and more.
Payments Modernization: CCUA regularly engages with Payments Canada to ensure credit union interests are represented as the modernization of Canada’s payments systems continues, including the introduction of the Real-Time Rail (RTR). In addition to monthly meetings, CCUA will hold bi-annual meetings with Payments Canada to bring our organizations closer and discuss relevant association initiatives and policy files more intimately.
Consumer-Driven Banking: CCUA will continue to represent credit unions to the government in developing the Canadian Consumer-Driven Banking Framework through advocacy with elected officials, the DoF, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). We will advocate for a framework that accounts for the cooperative model and prioritizes our sector needs and realities. Additional detail on CCUA’s advocacy on Canada’s Consumer-Driven Banking Framework can be found here.
Consumer Protection and External Complaints Handling: CCUA will continue to work with the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) to facilitate our sector’s use of OBSI’s external complaint-handling services.
We will continue to participate in consultations on proposed consumer protection measures led by the DoF and the FCAC, providing the perspective of the credit union sector, and will continue to ensure visibility with FCAC’s mandate to deliver the Government of Canada’s public commitment to make low-cost/ no-cost accounts meet the evolving banking needs of Canadians.
CCUA also offers a Digital Banking Services page that includes updated information on digital banking services and resources as the sector shifts to an increasingly digital world.
CCUA expects 2025 to be a crucial year for advancing global sustainability initiatives and integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors. This renewed focus is driven by changing regulatory frameworks, such as the OSFI B-15 Climate Risk Management Guideline and the Canadian Sustainability Disclosure Standards (CSDSs). Learn how your credit union can prepare for effective Climate Risk Management.
This year, CCUA is focusing on championing members’ ESG initiatives and preparing submissions on behalf of the sector regarding key issues that affect credit unions through developing a comprehensive Regional Climate Scenario Analysis Guide for credit unions, deepening stakeholder engagement across the respective safety nets and the private sector, and advocate for the sector by ensuring that regulations recognize the inherent strengths of the cooperative principles and don’t disadvantage the cooperative model.
For more on CCUA’s advocacy efforts on ESG, check out our ESG Resource Centre page.
Credit Union Tax Policy: In 2024, CCUA achieved one of its main national advocacy priorities by modernizing credit union tax policy through an update to the 50-year-old credit union definition in the national Income Tax Act. Announced in Budget 2023 and reformed in Bill C-59, the change removes a potential future tax liability from the sector worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars and ensures that credit unions will be able to continue to offer a full and competitive suite of banking services to over 10 million Canadians.
For more information, see our issue brief and the full report of the Special Committee on Federal Tax Policy for Canadian Credit Unions.
Other Issues
A made-for-Canada Open Banking framework, now referred to as the Consumer-Driven Banking Framework by the government, is currently being developed by the federal Department of Finance. This comes six years after the initial announcement of the Advisory Committee on Open Banking (OB) in the 2018 federal budget.
There has been a recent shift towards a more digital world, which has been accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, financial services are changing to adapt and meet consumer needs through a noticeable trend in data modernization.
Provincial issues can be found on the respective province’s page: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia. Please note provincial government relations for Alberta is currently handled by Alberta Central.