The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that the country's largest lenders face mounting global political uncertainty, rising mortgage competition and intensifying anti-money-laundering requirements. The Globe's Stefanie Marotta writes that the unravelling of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has been added to the list of banking risks. Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions head Peter Routledge said at a Toronto banking conference that amid the turmoil, about half of all mortgages in Canada have not been renewed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Routledge said delinquencies have been manageable, but the regulator is continuing to monitor risk. The mortgage stress test -- which requires uninsured borrowers to qualify at a rate of 5.25 per cent or two percentage points above their actual contracted rate -- did not help the financial system avoid the large block of variable-rate mortgages coming up for renewal with sizable payment shocks. In November, the OSFI implemented loan-to-income limits that require banks to limit the number of mortgages that exceed 4.5 times the borrower's annual income, which is also known as a loan-to-income (LTI) ratio of 450 per cent.
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