Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) today released its 2015 Annual Report titled “Why Housing Matters”.

As part of building a stronger CMHC, 2015 saw the Corporation make important progress in addressing housing market data gaps, assist 546,400 households through long-term commitments and insure mortgage loans for 304,518 homes – all of which helped Canadians meet their housing needs.

Report Highlights

• Net Income was $1.4 billion for the year ended 31 December 2015.
• Total insurance-in-force, which represents the aggregate exposure of the mortgage loan insurance activity, stood at $526 billion as at 31 December 2015.
• In 2015, CMHC provided $115.7 billion in guarantees through its securitization programs. These guarantees help both small and large lenders access funds for residential mortgage lending, supporting competition in the mortgage market and contributing to the stability of the financial system.
• In 2015, CMHC published results of its expanded stress testing exercise for the first time, both to be accountable and to invite improvements to its risk management approach. None of the extreme scenarios tested would deplete CMHC's capital below the minimum target of 100% - on par with minimum levels mandated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions for private competitors.
• The federal government, through CMHC, provided investments of more than $2 billion for housing in 2015. This included funding in support of existing social housing and funding for new commitments of affordable housing.

What’s more, CMHC continued to enhance its risk management framework in order to reduce taxpayer exposure.

Over the past decade, CMHC has provided $21 billion toward improving the government’s fiscal position; $19 billion of this contribution was provided through the mortgage loan insurance activity.