The federal government announced new measures it says will ensure Canadians are treated fairly at their banks, while making it easier to access funds deposited electronically.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled the government’s 2025 budget which includes changes on how consumers conduct financial transactions.
The government says it aims to lower costs and protect consumers by helping Canadians “keep more of their money in their pockets” by conducting more oversight on regulated financial institutions.
“Budget 2025 announces the government will review fees charged by banks and other federally regulated financial institutions including Interac e-Transfer fees and ATM fees,” reads the budget document. “We will use every tool and agency at our disposal to address any unjustified fees and pain points for Canadians. We will provide an update on this work in 2026.”
The government did not specify which fees it will review; however common bank fees include monthly maintenance charges to keep an account open, fees for using an ATM from a different bank, overdraft fees for spending more money than you have in your account and insufficient funds (NSF) fees charged for bounced back transactions. Common Interac e-transfer fees include a charge between 50 cents and $1.50 per transaction depending on the bank and account type.
For example, TD Bank charges 50 cents per transaction up to and including $100 and then $1 for transactions over $100 for personal accounts conducing Interact e-transfers. Business accounts are charged $1.50 to conduct transactions with Interact e-transfer. CIBC charges the same amount but only allows consumers to send up to $3,000 within a 24-hour period, up to $10,000 within a seven-day period and up to $30,000 within a 30-day period.
Increased access to funds deposited by cheques
The government highlighted the benefits of digitalization in the financial sector but acknowledged risks for consumers who remain reliant on legacy financial products and services, such as cheques which may be left behind.
It says access to cheque rules are a decade old and have not kept pace with cost-of-living increase or technological advances. To that end, the government plans to make a certain amount of funds available immediately for consumers depositing cheques in person and online.
“Budget 2025 proposes to amend the Bank Act to raise the first amount of immediately available deposited cheque funds from $100 to $150 and to remove the timing distinction between funds deposited in person and via other means, as well as introduce regulations to apply the change to trust and loan companies,” reads the budget document.
When a cheque is deposited at a financial institution, consumers may have to wait a certain amount of time to access the money as a cheque may be on hold.
The government states a financial institution may hold money to make sure that the person or company who wrote the cheque has enough money to cover it, make sure that the person or company who wrote the cheque has not put a stop payment on it, check the details with the cheque writer to make sure that it has not been altered and make sure that the account on which the cheque was written is still open and has not been closed.
RBC Bank, for example, states a cheque can clear but only be considered validated when money is taken out of the account of the person who wrote the cheque and the intended recipient has received the funds in their account