Former OSFI deputy warns tensions with the U.S. put capital at risk

Toronto's financial district, where many of Canada's Big Six banks have headquarters. Rising tensions with the U.S. makes the risk especially acute for Canadian banks that have large operations south of the border, says the report. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

A former senior bank regulator is warning the country’s largest financial institutions that rising geopolitical tensions — including a changing relationship with the United States — is increasing the risk of their assets being stranded abroad.

In a paper published by the C.D. Howe Institute on Thursday, Mark Zelmer, former deputy at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions , warns that authorities have begun to test the waters of preventing “repatriation” of assets to a lender’s home country in