This enactment amends the Criminal Code to lower the threshold at which an interest rate becomes a criminal rate and to include, in the calculation of the interest rate, the charges paid by a person to obtain insurance coverage.

It also repeals section 347.‍1 of that Act respecting payday loan agreements.

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

criminal rate means an effective annual rate of interest on the credit advanced under an agreement or arrangement, calculated in accordance with generally accepted actuarial practices and principles, that, Insertion start on the day on which the agreement or arrangement is entered into or renewed Insertion end , exceeds Insertion start by thirty percentage points or more the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate on that day Insertion end ; (taux criminel)

interest means the aggregate of all charges and expenses, whether in the form of a fee, fine, penalty, commission, insurance charge or other similar charge or expense or in any other form, paid or payable for the advancing of credit under an agreement or arrangement, by or on behalf of the person to whom the credit is or is to be advanced, irrespective of the person to whom any such charges and expenses are or are to be paid or payable, but does not include any repayment of credit advanced or any official fee, overdraft charge, required deposit balance or, in the case of a mortgage transaction, any amount required to be paid on account of property taxes; (intérêt)