CDIC Deposit Insurance (2026): How Many $100,000 Limits Do You Have?
$100,000, which is the number everyone knows, multiplied by 9 categories, which almost nobody counts. One person at one bank can hold $900,000 insured. Two traps run the other way: brands of one bank share a limit, and a joint account is covered per set of owners, not per owner.
The headline figure is low enough that many Canadians assume they are exposed, and high enough that most never check. Both reactions miss the structure: the limit is not a single number but a number multiplied by how your accounts are held, and the multiplication is generous in places and absent in others.
9 categories, each with its own limit
Coverage is $100,000 per depositor, per member institution, per category, counting principal and interest together. The categories are:
| 1 | Deposits held in one name | $100,000 |
| 2 | Joint deposits, per set of owners | $100,000 |
| 3 | Deposits held in trust | $100,000 |
| 4 | TFSA | $100,000 |
| 5 | RRSP | $100,000 |
| 6 | RRIF | $100,000 |
| 7 | FHSA | $100,000 |
| 8 | RESP | $100,000 |
| 9 | RDSP | $100,000 |
| Maximum for one person at one member | $900,000 |
The registered plans are where the room is. A TFSA, an RRSP and an FHSA at the same bank carry $300,000 between them, on top of whatever is in your own name. Only the deposits inside those plans count: a TFSA holding a GIC is covered, a TFSA holding an index fund is not, and the two can sit in the same account number.
Two improvements are recent enough that people still get them wrong. Deposits in foreign currency are covered, and term deposits are covered whatever their length, where coverage used to stop at five years.
How many limits does your household actually have?
| Configuration | Limits | Insured total | What establishes it | Failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One person, chequing and savings at one bank | 1 | $100,000 | Both sit in the one-name category and are added together | A balance that spikes after a house sale sits uninsured above the limit |
| The same person, with a TFSA and an RRSP at that bank | 3 | $300,000 | Each registered plan is its own category | Only deposits inside the plan count; funds and stocks in it do not |
| A couple with two joint accounts | 1 | $100,000 | A set of owners receives one limit for all their joint accounts combined | Unlike the United States, a joint account is not insured per co-owner |
| The same couple, plus a joint account that also includes their child | 2 | $200,000 | A different set of owners is a separate joint holding with its own limit | The records must name every owner for the set to be recognised |
| One person using every category at one member | 9 | $900,000 | Nine categories, each with its own limit | Needs the registered plans to actually exist and hold deposits |
| Money split across two brands of one member institution | 1 | $100,000 | A trade name is not a separate member; balances are combined | Two apps and two statements suggest two limits, and there is one |
| A provincial credit union | 0 CDIC | Provincial | Covered by the province's guarantee corporation, not CDIC | Often more generous, sometimes unlimited, but the rules are provincial |
Coverage at a single CDIC member institution, as of October 2026. Totals assume balances reach the limits shown. CDIC's own calculator applies the current rules to your actual accounts and is the authority.
The same $100,000 limit, multiplied or not by how the accounts are held. The two lowest rows are configurations people often believe have doubled their coverage.
A joint account is not covered per person
This is the rule most often imported wrongly from American coverage, where each co-owner of a joint account is insured separately. In Canada a set of owners receives $100,000 for all of their joint accounts at that member combined. A couple with two joint accounts has one limit between them, not two and not four.
What does create another limit is a different set of owners. The same couple plus their child is a different set, with its own $100,000. The institution's records have to state that the deposit is jointly owned and name every owner, which is the kind of administrative detail that is free to get right now and impossible to fix later.
Two brands of one bank are one limit
Coverage follows the member institution, and a trade name is not a member. Several familiar Canadian banking brands are trade names of a larger bank, so money split between the parent and its online brand is added together for one $100,000 limit per category.
The same applies after an amalgamation: once two institutions become one member, their deposits are eventually combined, with temporary transitional coverage for balances placed beforehand. CDIC publishes the list of members and the trade names belonging to each, which is the only reliable way to tell whether two names are two limits. We do not name institutions here, because membership and brand structures change and a named claim goes stale without warning.
Credit unions are a different system
Provincial credit unions are not CDIC members. They are covered by their province's own guarantee corporation, and the terms vary: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba each guarantee credit union deposits in full, with no dollar cap, which is more generous than CDIC rather than less.
The complication is that some credit unions have continued federally and become CDIC members, in which case the $100,000 rules on this page apply to them instead. Check which regime covers yours rather than assuming either; the provincial corporations and CDIC both publish their member lists.
What CDIC does not cover
Deposits only. Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency are not covered, and that remains true inside a registered plan at a member bank: the TFSA is a category, but what is in it still has to be a deposit.
It also does not cover losses from fraud on your account, which is a separate matter handled by your institution, and it does not cover anything held at an institution that is not a member.
Checking your own coverage
CDIC publishes a free calculator that applies the current rules to your actual accounts, and a member list that resolves the trade-name question. Both are more reliable than any table, including the one above, because they are maintained by the body that would actually pay out. Your bank's assurance is not CDIC's determination.
If you are over the limit, the first two fixes cost nothing: use the categories you already have, which for most households means moving some balance into a TFSA or an RRSP at the same bank, and spread the rest across genuinely separate members rather than separate brands. For where to put it once it is spread, see GIC vs high-interest savings, and for the registered accounts themselves, TFSA vs RRSP vs FHSA.
Frequently asked questions
How much does CDIC cover?
$100,000 per depositor, per member institution, in each of 9 separate categories, counting principal and interest together. Because the categories are separate, one person at a single bank can be covered for up to $900,000 if they use all of them.
Is a joint account covered for $200,000?
No, and this is the rule most often assumed from American coverage. A set of owners receives $100,000 for all their joint accounts at that member combined, not $100,000 each. A different combination of owners, say the same couple plus a child, counts as a separate set with its own $100,000.
Are GICs covered by CDIC?
Yes, including terms longer than five years, which were excluded until a few years ago. Deposits in foreign currency are covered too. The limit counts principal and interest together, so a GIC close to the limit can pass it as interest accrues.
Is my TFSA covered separately from my savings account?
Yes. A TFSA is its own category, so $100,000 of eligible deposits inside it is insured on top of $100,000 held in your own name. The same applies to an RRSP, RRIF, FHSA, RESP and RDSP, each separately.
What is not covered by CDIC?
Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency, whoever sold them and even when they are held inside a registered plan at a member bank. CDIC covers deposits: chequing and savings balances, GICs and other term deposits.
Are two brands of the same bank insured separately?
No. A trade name is not a separate member institution, so deposits under a bank's online brand are combined with deposits at the bank itself for one limit per category. CDIC publishes the list of members and the trade names that belong to each.
Are credit unions covered by CDIC?
Provincial credit unions are not: they are covered by their province's own guarantee corporation, and several provinces guarantee deposits in full with no dollar cap. A credit union that has become a federal credit union is a CDIC member instead. Check which applies before assuming either.
Do I need to apply for deposit insurance?
No. It is free and automatic at every member institution, with nothing to sign up for. What you can do is make sure the account records name all owners of a joint deposit, and that trust deposits are properly identified, because the records are what the coverage is based on.
Related guides
Among Canadians holding registered retirement savings the median runs from $15,000 under 35 to $120,000 at 55 to 64. About a third hold none, and Canada leads the US on that measure in every comparable age band.
The lifetime limit is $50,000 per child. The number that matters is the $7,200 grant, and because you can catch up only one year at a time, starting at 13 puts $2,200 of it out of reach.
The third year at $7,000. Anyone 18 and resident since 2009 who has never contributed has $109,000 of room, it never expires, and no income test applies.
Fill your TFSA for ten years and the order the returns arrive in moves the ending balance by $69,348 on identical contributions. On a lump sum it changes nothing, which is the control that proves it.
Researching and writing about Canadian personal finance since 2026.
Last reviewed October 2026 · How we research
“CDIC Deposit Insurance (2026): How Many $100,000 Limits Do You Have?.” Vault Nerd, https://www.vaultnerd.com/ca/learn/cdic-deposit-insurance, updated October 2026.
- Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, What's covered: $100,000 per depositor, per member institution, in each of 9 categories, including foreign currency and term deposits of any length
- CDIC, Deposits held in more than one name: a set of owners receives one limit for all their joint accounts combined
- CDIC Deposit Insurance Information By-law guidance: a trade name is not a separate member institution and its deposits are combined with the member's
- Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and Deposit Guarantee Corporation of Manitoba: full guarantees on credit union deposits
No bank, credit union or product is reviewed on this page and Vault Nerd has no affiliate relationship in this category. No institution is named as insured or uninsured: use CDIC's member list and calculator, which are always current. Figures checked October 2026.