The Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) fourth annual systemic risk survey findings have revealed that overall concern levels regarding financial stability have risen slightly compared with prior years, with market participants most worried about trade (geopolitics), cyber vulnerabilities, and household debt.
According to a news release, the insights from the 2025 survey results will give the CSA significant information regarding market participants’ perceptions of the Canadian financial system’s stability and perspectives on financial and economic risks.
“The survey results are a key input into the CSA’s ongoing efforts to monitor financial vulnerabilities and enhance financial stability,” said Stan Magidson, CSA chair and the Alberta Securities Commission’s chair and chief executive officer, in the news release.
Survey results
The 2025 CSA systemic risk survey findings revealed that, among 505 Canadian portfolio managers and investment dealers who answered the survey between Oct. 16 and Nov. 6:
- Overall concern levels this year were higher than the 2024 levels, but broadly in line with the 2023 levels
- 65 percent said they were ‘somewhat’ to ‘very’ concerned about the Canadian financial system’s stability, compared with 59 percent in the 2024 survey, held just before the US election
- 32 percent reported that their concern level had gone up compared with last year
- 70 percent saw cyber security as at least a ‘high’ risk, up from 60 percent in 2023
- 62 percent thought that household debt posed a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ risk to Canada’s financial stability, down from 68 percent in 2024 and 75 percent in 2023
- Concerns about the housing market and prevailing interest rates also went down from their peaks in 2023
“We would like to thank the respondents for their participation, which allows us to study the evolution of their concerns in the context of economic uncertainty,” Magidson said in the CSA’s news release.
Respondents also:
- cited trade concerns most often in the context of ongoing trade tensions
- reported such conflict as a significant concern in the broader geopolitical environment
- did not cite artificial intelligence (AI) as a high-level concern, though multiple respondents stated that AI contributed to cybersecurity concerns, including worries about social engineering and deep fakes
The CSA, the council of the securities regulators for Canada’s provinces and territories, seeks to coordinate and harmonize regulation for the country’s capital markets.