OSFI: Canada's tokenized deposits need no new legal category

Canada's banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), has confirmed that tokenized deposits are legally no different from traditional bank deposits. The clarification gives federally regulated Canadian banks a green light to build tokenized deposit products on blockchain rails without a new regulatory category or separate framework.

The decision is part of a broader trend of regulators formalizing how banks treat tokenized money, following similar moves by Swift-partner banks, the UK, Japan and South Korea as traditional finance pushes deposits on-chain.