The Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) is a federal Crown corporation that automatically insures eligible deposits, including savings accounts and GICs, at member financial institutions, at no cost to depositors. CDIC was established in 1967 and has resolved 43 member failures; in its own words, no one has lost a dollar of deposits under its protection.
How the category system works matters most when you hold more than $100,000 at a single institution. This page covers how coverage works; the rest of this section, from frozen accounts to lost cards and fraud, is in the banking security hub.
How CDIC Coverage Works
CDIC doesn’t insure a depositor up to $100,000 in total. It insures up to $100,000 per deposit category at each member institution, principal and interest combined. Deposits in different categories are insured separately even at the same bank.
| CDIC Coverage Category | Limit |
|---|---|
| Deposits held in one name (non-registered) | $100,000 |
| Deposits held in more than one name (joint deposits) | $100,000 |
| RRSP deposits | $100,000 |
| RRIF deposits | $100,000 |
| TFSA deposits | $100,000 |
| RDSP deposits | $100,000 |
| RESP deposits | $100,000 |
| FHSA deposits | $100,000 |
| Deposits held in trust | $100,000 |
Source: Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation – cdic.ca/depositors/whats-covered/. Each category is insured separately per member institution. There is no maximum term: GICs and other term deposits of any length, in Canadian or foreign currency, are eligible. Market-linked GICs are covered only if the principal is fully repayable.
Because each category has its own limit, a $100,000 TFSA and a $100,000 savings account in your own name at the same bank are both fully covered: they don’t share a limit. A person with an eligible deposit at the limit in each of the nine categories would have $900,000 insured at one institution. RESP deposits are counted per beneficiary.
The joint category limit applies to the account total, not per person: a joint account above the limit is insured only up to it.
What Is and Is Not Covered
Eligible deposits
CDIC covers eligible deposits in Canadian or foreign currency, including:
- Savings accounts (standard and high-interest)
- Chequing accounts
- GICs and other term deposits of any length (CDIC removed the old 5-year maximum term on April 30, 2020)
Foreign currency deposits, such as a USD savings account, are eligible but have no separate category. If a member fails, they are converted to Canadian dollars and combined with the other eligible deposits in the same category (deposits in one name, for example), and the combined total is insured up to the limit. Whether a GIC can lose money for other reasons is covered in are GICs safe.
Not covered by CDIC
- Stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds and other investment securities
- Cryptocurrency and digital assets
- Deposits at institutions that aren’t CDIC members
- Investments held in a brokerage account, which may be protected by CIPF instead
CDIC doesn’t protect against investment losses; it applies only if the member institution itself fails.
CDIC Member Institutions
CDIC members include banks, federally regulated credit unions, and federally regulated trust and loan companies. The Big Five banks and the major online banks are members. The way to check a specific institution is the member list at cdic.ca; members also display the CDIC logo in branches and on their websites.
Some fintech accounts aren’t held by a bank at all, so their coverage depends on the partner institution that holds the money: each fintech’s review in the bank and fintech reviews explains its setup.
Credit Unions: Provincial Coverage
Provincially regulated credit unions are not CDIC members. They are covered by provincial deposit insurance or guarantee corporations instead, with limits and rules that vary by province. Federally regulated credit unions are CDIC members.| Province | Insurer | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (CUDIC) | Unlimited on eligible deposits |
| Alberta | Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC) | Unlimited on eligible deposits |
| Saskatchewan | Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC) | Unlimited on eligible deposits |
| Manitoba | Deposit Guarantee Corporation of Manitoba (DGCM) | Unlimited on eligible deposits |
| Ontario | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) | $250,000 for eligible non-registered deposits; unlimited for eligible registered deposits |
| Quebec | Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) | $100,000 per depositor per category |
| New Brunswick | New Brunswick Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation | $250,000 per depositor per category |
| Nova Scotia | Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corporation of Nova Scotia | $250,000 per account type |
Provincially regulated credit unions are not CDIC members. They are covered by provincial deposit insurance or guarantee corporations instead, with limits and rules that vary by province. Federally regulated credit unions are CDIC members. Source: Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation – cdic.ca/depositors/whats-covered/. Always confirm current coverage with the specific credit union and provincial regulator.
The provinces with unlimited coverage on eligible deposits are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Credit unions themselves are compared in the best credit unions in Canada.
How Much Can Be Insured at One Bank?
Not everyone has deposits in every category, so the realistic figure depends on which accounts you hold. An example for one person with a partner:
| Account | Balance | Category | Covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal savings | $100,000 | Deposits in one name | ✅ |
| Joint savings | $100,000 | Joint deposits | ✅ |
| TFSA | $100,000 | TFSA | ✅ |
| RRSP | $100,000 | RRSP | ✅ |
| RRIF | $100,000 | RRIF | ✅ |
| FHSA | $100,000 | FHSA | ✅ |
| Total at one bank | $600,000 | Fully covered |
This is why “CDIC only covers $100,000” is incomplete: the category system covers more than the headline figure suggests.
Deposits Above the Limits
When deposits exceed what one institution’s categories can cover, spreading them across several CDIC members brings more of the balance within insured limits, because coverage at each member is separate. A GIC ladder spread across institutions does this naturally; see GIC laddering and the best GIC rates.
For joint accounts, keeping the joint balance within the limit, or splitting money between joint and individual accounts (which have separate limits), keeps it covered.
CDIC vs CIPF
CDIC and CIPF (the Canadian Investor Protection Fund) are often confused, but they cover different situations:
- CDIC covers eligible bank deposits (savings, chequing, GICs) at member institutions if the institution fails.
- CIPF covers property held at a member investment dealer (stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, cash in a brokerage account) if the dealer becomes insolvent. How it applies to each broker is covered in the brokerage reviews.
Neither compensates for a fall in the market value of your investments.
What Happens When a CDIC Member Fails
When a member fails, CDIC has several resolution tools: selling the institution’s shares or assets to another institution, merging it with another institution, recapitalizing it, or another restructuring. Where none of those works, CDIC reimburses eligible depositors directly, based on the member’s records at the time of failure, up to the coverage limits.
Most of the 43 failures were smaller trust and mortgage loan companies in the 1980s and early 1990s; the most recent was in 1996. Canadian Commercial Bank, which failed in 1985, was one of them.
Checking Your Coverage
CDIC’s deposit insurance estimator at cdic.ca takes your balances by category and estimates your coverage at one institution, which is useful once deposits at a single bank pass the per-category limit. The member list on the same site confirms whether an institution is covered.