Description
Please find below a consultation document concerning federal, provincial and territorial efforts to harmonize cost of credit disclosure law in Canada.
In 1995 under the Agreement on Internal Trade, governments agreed to harmonize their cost of credit laws, and in 1998 governments agreed upon a harmonization template to guide jurisdictions in implementing their respective laws. The objective of this consultation is to address two issues raised in an August 2004 report of a Panel convened under Article 1704 of the Agreement on Internal Trade to hear a dispute by Alberta, Québec and British Columbia with Canada regarding the Federal Bank Act - Cost of Borrowing (Banks) Regulations. In the report, the Panel recommended that clear guidelines be developed on: how APR (annual percentage rate) is to be calculated in disclosure documents for open credit other than credit cards; and what, if any, additional waivers to the 2-day cooling-off period for mortgage disclosures are acceptable.
The working group has developed options for addressing both of these issues, and presents them to you in the consultation document. An appendix to the document also provides information on rules to be implemented in the United Kingdom with respect to consumer credit agreements. The views of your organization will be of considerable assistance to the working group in its development of approaches to address these two issues.
Publication(s)
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Contact Person
You are requested to submit your comments by March 1, 2005. You may reply by regular mail, fax or email, using this form or by letter. Please send your submissions to:
Maryanne Murphy
Consumer Measures Committee
c/o Office of Consumer Affairs,
Industry Canada
235 Queen Street,
Ottawa ON K1A 0H5
Fax: (613) 952-6927
E-mail: murphy.maryanne@ic.gc.ca
