Real Estate Law Blog

The City of Vancouver (the “City”) has issued a new corporate policy on Letters of Credit that sets out the requirements that must be met where applicants for City approvals are required to provide security to the City for development or non-development projects.

The policy provides that the City will not accept any form of cheque (whether certified or not) or bank draft as an alternative form of security and that the City will only accept letters of credit from the following financial institutions:

• Bank of Montreal

• The Bank of Nova Scotia

• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

• Canadian Western Bank

• National Bank of Canada

• Royal Bank of Canada

• The Toronto Dominion Bank

• HSBC Bank Canada

• BlueShore Financial Credit Union

• Coast Capital Savings Credit Union

• Vancouver City Savings Credit Union

The policy also includes a copy of the only form of letter of credit that will be accepted by the City going forward. A copy of this form of letter of credit can be found at the link here: City of Vancouver - Letter of Credit Template. The City has advised that the form of letter of credit has been vetted by the major national banks on the above list. The application of the City’s new policy along with the approved form of letter of credit should streamline the process of settling security with the City when required as part of the City’s approval process.