{"id":708483,"date":"2026-06-01T20:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/708483\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:10:08","slug":"canadian-banks-hold-fewest-mortgages-since-2020-arrears-near-decade-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/708483\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Banks Hold Fewest Mortgages Since 2020, Arrears Near Decade High"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Canadian banks aren\u2019t just seeing delinquencies rise\u2014they\u2019re losing market share. <a href=\"https:\/\/cba.ca\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Bankers Association (CBA)<\/a> data shows the arrears rate was unchanged in March. Delinquent mortgages stalled at one of the highest levels in a decade, after doubling from 2022 lows. However, the big story last month was the drop in the number of mortgages held by banks, now approaching a 6-year low.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Mortgage Arrears Rate Remains At 9-Year High<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arrears rate of residential mortgages at Canadian banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: CBA; Better Dwelling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The national arrears rate was largely unchanged at 0.28% in March, up 6 basis points (bps) from last year. The rate is the highest since February 2017, and double the pandemic lows last seen in mid-2022. That means arrears outpaced total mortgages by 18% over the past year, and have averaged roughly double the pace since 2022. It\u2019s easy to mistake that monthly stall as a sign of stabilization, but a breakdown reveals that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Banks Haven\u2019t Seen Delinquencies Like This In 10 Years<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The total number of mortgages at least 90 days past due at Canadian banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: CBA; Better Dwelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mortgages in arrears were virtually unchanged at 13.7k in March, 28 fewer than in February. Not 28 hundred or thousand, but literally 28 fewer delinquencies. The count has climbed 24.7% since last year, and has almost doubled from August 2022\u2019s record lows. Since February 2026 had the most arrears since January 2014, March was just over two dozen arrears below a 12-year high. In any case, the decline is more a rounding error than a sign of market stabilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Banks Hold Fewest Mortgages Since 2020<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of mortgages held by Canadian banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: CBA; Better Dwelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elevated arrears aren\u2019t the only problem banks are facing. They\u2019re also holding fewer mortgages. Total mortgages fell 0.13% (-6.64k) to 4.93 million in March, down 1.07% (-53.34k) from last year. Since hitting a record high in June 2022, the total mortgage count has fallen 3.62% (-185.4k). Banks usually dominate the mortgage market, making this decline especially unusual. They\u2019re now holding the fewest mortgages since October 2020, approaching a 6-year low.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At first glance, it looks like there may have been some signs of stabilization in the mortgage market. A dive into the data shows the arrears front hasn\u2019t improved, while total mortgage volume is falling. Banks are holding fewer mortgages, amplifying the pain of each delinquency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tYou Might Also Like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian banks aren\u2019t just seeing delinquencies rise\u2014they\u2019re losing market share. Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) data shows the arrears&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-708483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}