All Six Big Banks Have Now Raised Fixed Rates, Adding $3,300 to a $500,000 Renewal

What Changed, Why It Happened Without the Bank of Canada, and What to Check Before You Sign

Published: October 5, 2026, 12:27 p.m. ET

Fact-checked , including Bank of Canada, CMHC & OSFI

Credit: Shutterstock

Key Takeaways

•CIBC and TD raised select fixed mortgage rates by 20 basis points on September 29, 2026, which means all six of Canada's largest banks have now increased fixed rates this fall.
•On a $500,000 balance amortized over 25 years, moving from 4.29% to 4.49% adds about $55 a month, or roughly $3,300 in payments over five years. The added interest is larger, at about $4,800.
•A rate hold, an early comparison quote, a straight switch and a permitted lump-sum prepayment are the levers worth checking before a renewal offer is signed. The terms of each vary by lender.

CIBC and TD raised select fixed mortgage rates by 20 basis points on September 29, 2026, mostly on three- and five-year terms, according to a Yahoo Finance report published October 5. The two banks were the last of the Big Six to move. BMO, National Bank, RBC and Scotiabank had already raised select fixed rates in the preceding weeks, so the round is now complete.

For a homeowner whose term ends before spring, that sequence matters more than the size of any single increase. The rate on a renewal offer issued today is higher than the one available a month ago, and the Bank of Canada did not change its policy rate to cause it. The Bank held at 2.25% on September 2, its seventh consecutive hold.

This report sets out what changed, why fixed rates moved on their own, what 20 basis points costs on a real balance, and which no-cost steps are worth investigating before signing. It does not forecast rates or recommend a lender or product.

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What the Banks Changed, and When

A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point. Twenty basis points is 0.20 percentage points: the difference between 4.29% and 4.49%.

The original reporting comes from the trade publication Canadian Mortgage Trends, which said on September 29 that both banks increased several fixed rates by 20 basis points, with most of the movement on three- and five-year terms and some shorter terms also rising. It named BMO, National Bank, RBC and Scotiabank as the four banks that had moved earlier, without itemizing the date or size of each change. Other lenders followed with increases of between five and 40 basis points across one- to five-year terms, most of them between 15 and 30.

Two details narrow the claim. The increases apply to select rates, not every product each bank sells. And the figures describe advertised pricing, which is not always the rate a particular borrower is offered at renewal.

Homeowner.ca reported the move itself when it happened, in CIBC and TD Add 20 Basis Points to Fixed Rates as Five-Year Yield Hits 3.729%.

Why Fixed Rates Rose While the Bank of Canada Held

Two different benchmarks set two different kinds of mortgage rate. Variable rates follow each lender's prime rate, which tends to move with the Bank of Canada's policy rate. Fixed rates follow Government of Canada bond yields, because those yields reflect what it costs a lender to fund a loan at a set rate for several years. The policy rate did not move. The five-year bond yield did.

The Bank of Canada's own daily benchmark series for the five-year bond shows the scale. The yield closed at 3.44% on September 8 and at 3.69% on September 29, a rise of 25 basis points in three weeks. That is almost exactly the size of the banks' increases.

The widely quoted 52-week high of 3.729% on September 28 is an intraday market reading. The central bank's published closing values did not exceed 3.69% in September. The yield has also eased since: it closed at 3.60% on October 2. That is still 16 basis points above its September 8 level, and a lower yield does not oblige any lender to reduce a rate it has already raised.

Coverage of the move attributes the rise to a global bond selloff tied to concern that high energy prices will feed inflation. Governor Tiff Macklem addressed the same pressure in a September 21 speech in Halifax, as quoted in the Yahoo Finance report: "We don't want to raise our policy rate and restrain growth if inflationary pressures are contained. But nor do we want to be too slow to respond if inflationary pressures are becoming more persistent." In the same speech he noted that bond yields in Canada had risen. The Bank's next decision is October 28.

The decision that preceded all of this is covered in Bank of Canada Holds at 2.25% for Seventh Straight Meeting as Long Bond Yields Push Fixed Rates Up.

What 20 Basis Points Costs on a $500,000 Renewal

The headline figure comes from an example in the Yahoo Finance report: a $500,000 mortgage renewed over a 25-year amortization, with the five-year fixed rate moving from 4.29% to 4.49%. It puts the increase at roughly $55 a month and nearly $3,300 over the term.

The arithmetic holds. Using monthly payments and the semi-annual compounding that applies to Canadian fixed-rate mortgages, the payment rises by $55.29 a month, or $3,318 over 60 payments. But that number measures payments, not cost. The two are different, and the difference runs against the borrower.

Over a five-year term	At 4.29%	At 4.49%	Difference
Monthly payment	$2,709.29	$2,764.59	$55.29
Total payments	$162,557	$165,875	$3,318
Interest paid	$99,999	$104,784	$4,785
Balance owing at end of term	$437,442	$438,909	$1,467

A higher rate does two things at once. It raises the payment, and it directs more of each payment to interest. So the borrower at 4.49% pays $3,318 more and still ends the term owing $1,467 more. Added together, that is the $4,785 in extra interest. The $3,300 is the smaller of the two honest numbers.

The effect scales in a straight line with the balance.

Balance at renewal	Added monthly payment	Added payments over five years	Added interest over five years
$300,000	$33	$1,991	$2,871
$400,000	$44	$2,654	$3,828
$500,000	$55	$3,318	$4,785
$750,000	$83	$4,976	$7,177

Note

These are estimates, not quotes. They assume a 25-year amortization, monthly payments, semi-annual compounding, no prepayments and a rate that moves from 4.29% to 4.49%. A different rate, amortization or payment frequency produces a different result.

For the larger step from a pandemic-era rate to today's, see Bank of Canada Holds Rates — Here's What a 2026 Mortgage Renewal Could Cost You Now.

Who Is Renewing Into These Rates

The number of households affected is large, though past its peak. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is cited as projecting about 1.15 million mortgage renewals in 2026 and another 940,000 in 2027. Those counts were already in circulation in late 2025. The agency's most recent update, a May 2026 release on its Residential Mortgage Industry Report, said renewal volumes were expected to ease through 2026 while most renewing borrowers still faced significant increases in interest costs.

The increase is not spread evenly. A Bank of Canada staff analysis from July 2025 estimated that the average payment for everyone renewing in 2026 could be 6% higher than in December 2024. For borrowers coming off a five-year fixed contract, the estimate was 15% to 20%. That projection was built on the rate outlook of mid-2025, before this fall's rise in yields. It is a scenario, not a guarantee for any household.

The group with the least room to absorb it is examined in Near-Retiree Mortgage Renewals Hit Hardest as 2026 Payment Jumps Average 6% Against Fixed Incomes.

Rate Holds, Renewal Notices and the Case for Starting Early

The Rate Hold

A rate hold is a lender's commitment to honour a quoted rate for a set period while an application proceeds. The Yahoo Finance report advises borrowers renewing within about four months to ask for one from their current lender and from at least one other institution or broker, and to confirm two things: how long the hold lasts, and whether a lower rate will be passed through if rates fall before closing.

Neither answer is standard. RBC's published fixed-rate mortgage terms illustrate the gap: the bank describes a rate guarantee of up to 120 days before closing on a new mortgage, and a renewal-rate guarantee of 30 days before the renewal date. Same bank, same product family, very different windows. A 120-day hold opened on October 5 would run to early February; a 30-day one would not reach November. This is one lender's stated policy, offered as an example and not as a market rule.

Tip

Ask each lender to put the hold's expiry date and its treatment of a rate decrease in writing. A hold that lapses before your renewal date protects nothing.

The Renewal Statement

The second reason to start early is how late the paperwork can arrive. A federally regulated financial institution must provide a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends, according to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The statement must show the remaining principal, the offered rate, the term, the payment frequency and any fees, and must state that the offered rate will not increase before the renewal date.

Twenty-one days is a legal minimum, not a shopping window. The agency recommends starting a few months before the term ends, contacting several lenders and brokers, and not waiting for the letter. It also says a borrower may qualify for a discounted rate below the one in the renewal letter, and that if no action is taken the mortgage may renew automatically on terms that are not the best available. The agency does not say every automatic renewal lands at a posted rate. It says the borrower who does nothing has not tested the offer.

The national real-estate association's warning on the same point is reported in CREA Warns Renewing Owners That Fixed Rates Have Risen and Markets Now Price a 2026 Hike.

Two Levers Worth Checking: The Straight Switch and the Lump Sum

The Straight Switch

Moving a mortgage to another lender at renewal once meant re-qualifying at a rate well above the contract rate, which kept some borrowers with their existing lender regardless of the offer. That changed on November 21, 2024, when the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions stopped prescribing the minimum qualifying rate for eligible uninsured borrowers making a straight switch.

The definition is narrow. The mortgage must be an existing stand-alone uninsured loan moving from one federally regulated lender to another, with no increase in the loan amount and no extension of the remaining amortization. Borrow more or stretch the amortization, and it is no longer a straight switch.

Nor is it an entitlement. The regulator expects the new lender to assess the application like any new mortgage, including the borrower's capacity to carry the debt. The exemption removes one prescribed test. It does not remove underwriting. Switching can also carry discharge, registration, transfer or appraisal costs, although federal consumer guidance notes that a borrower can ask the new lender to cover some or all of them.

The Lump Sum

The other lever shrinks the balance being re-priced. A prepayment privilege is the amount a borrower may pay above regular payments without a penalty, as the federal consumer agency's guidance on prepayment defines it. Privileges vary by lender, are usually capped each year, and generally cannot be carried forward if unused. The same guidance notes that a borrower can consider waiting until the end of the term to make a lump-sum payment without a prepayment charge.

The arithmetic here is tidy. On the $500,000 example at 4.49%, a $10,000 reduction in the balance lowers the monthly payment by about $55. That is the same amount the 20-basis-point increase added. A prepayment of that size does not undo the higher rate, but it returns the payment to where it would have been.

How quickly yields have been moving is tracked in Five-Year Bond Yield Jumped 14 Basis Points in a Day, Raising Renewal Costs for Owners.

The Straight Switch

The Lump Sum

How quickly yields have been moving is tracked in Five-Year Bond Yield Jumped 14 Basis Points in a Day, Raising Renewal Costs for Owners.

Questions to Investigate Before You Sign

None of these steps guarantees a lower rate. Each one replaces an assumption with an answer, and each depends on the specific lender and contract.

When does my term end, and has my lender already issued a renewal offer or a rate I can hold?
How long does each rate hold last, and will a lower rate apply if rates fall before my renewal date?
What rate would a second lender or a mortgage broker offer on the same balance, term and amortization?
Is my mortgage uninsured, and would a move to another federally regulated lender count as a straight switch?
What would switching cost in discharge, transfer, registration or appraisal fees, and will the new lender cover any of it?
What does my contract allow as a prepayment this year, and can I make a lump-sum payment at the end of the term without a charge?
What happens under my contract if I take no action by the renewal date?

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About the Author

Ryan May

Senior Contributor / Founder

Ryan is the founder of Homeowner.ca and a proud Canadian homeowner based in Guelph, Ontario. Over his 25-year career in digital publishing, he has focused on transforming complex information into clear, practical guidance that helps people make confident, well-informed decisions.

Meet Our Team Editorial Standards

Sources

Bank of Canada. (2025). How will mortgage payments change at renewal? An updated analysis (Staff Analytical Note 2025-21). Retrieved from https://www.bankofcanada.ca/
Bank of Canada. (2026). Navigating uncertainty and adapting to change (Remarks by Governor Tiff Macklem, September 21, 2026). Retrieved from https://www.bankofcanada.ca/
Bank of Canada. (2026). Benchmark bond yield, 5-year (Series BD.CDN.5YR.DQ.YLD). Retrieved from https://www.bankofcanada.ca/

Show 7 more sources

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (2026). Renewal wave peaks but still dominates mortgage market. Retrieved from https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. (2025). Renewing your mortgage. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. (n.d.). Reducing prepayment penalties. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/
Huebl, S. (2026). CIBC and TD raise fixed mortgage rates as 5-year yield tops 3.70%. Canadian Mortgage Trends. Retrieved from https://www.canadianmortgagetrends.com/
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. (2024). OSFI exempts uninsured mortgage straight switches from the prescribed MQR and implements portfolio LTI limits. Retrieved from https://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/
RBC Royal Bank. (n.d.). Fixed rate mortgage. Retrieved from https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/
Saric, D. (2026). CIBC and TD raise fixed mortgage rates by 20 basis points, completing a Big Six sweep that could cost renewers thousands. Yahoo Finance Canada. Retrieved from https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

Key Takeaways

•CIBC and TD raised select fixed mortgage rates by 20 basis points on September 29, 2026, which means all six of Canada's largest banks have now increased fixed rates this fall.
•On a $500,000 balance amortized over 25 years, moving from 4.29% to 4.49% adds about $55 a month, or roughly $3,300 in payments over five years. The added interest is larger, at about $4,800.
•A rate hold, an early comparison quote, a straight switch and a permitted lump-sum prepayment are the levers worth checking before a renewal offer is signed. The terms of each vary by lender.

The decision that preceded all of this is covered in Bank of Canada Holds at 2.25% for Seventh Straight Meeting as Long Bond Yields Push Fixed Rates Up.

Over a five-year term

At 4.29%

At 4.49%

Difference

Monthly payment

$2,709.29

$2,764.59

$55.29

Total payments

$162,557

$165,875

$3,318

Interest paid

$99,999

$104,784

$4,785

Balance owing at end of term

$437,442

$438,909

$1,467

Balance at renewal

Added monthly payment

Added payments over five years

Added interest over five years

$300,000

$33

$1,991

$2,871

$400,000

$44

$2,654

$3,828

$500,000

$55

$3,318

$4,785

$750,000

$83

$4,976

$7,177

All Six Big Banks Have Now Raised Fixed Rates, Adding $3,300 to a $500,000 Renewal

Key Takeaways

What the Banks Changed, and When

Why Fixed Rates Rose While the Bank of Canada Held

What 20 Basis Points Costs on a $500,000 Renewal

Who Is Renewing Into These Rates

Rate Holds, Renewal Notices and the Case for Starting Early

The Rate Hold

The Renewal Statement

Two Levers Worth Checking: The Straight Switch and the Lump Sum

The Straight Switch

The Lump Sum

The Straight Switch

The Lump Sum

Questions to Investigate Before You Sign

Sources

Related Reading

Bank of Canada Holds Rates — Here’s What a 2026 Mortgage Renewal Could Cost You Now

Five-Year Bond Yield Jumped 14 Basis Points in a Day, Raising Renewal Costs for Owners

CREA Warns Renewing Owners That Fixed Rates Have Risen and Markets Now Price a 2026 Hike

CIBC and TD Add 20 Basis Points to Fixed Rates as Five-Year Yield Hits 3.729%

Five-Year Government Bond Yield Rose 56 Basis Points Since February, Pressuring Fixed Mortgage Renewals

Bank of Canada Deliberations Reveal Reasoning Behind Sixth-Straight 2.25% Hold as Renewal Wave Builds

Bank of Canada's New Prima Model Puts Your Mortgage Renewal at the Centre of Rate Decisions

The Bank of Canada Decides Tomorrow. If You Renew Before June, One Number Matters More Than the Rate

All Six Big Banks Have Now Raised Fixed Rates, Adding $3,300 to a $500,000 Renewal

Key Takeaways

What the Banks Changed, and When

Why Fixed Rates Rose While the Bank of Canada Held

What 20 Basis Points Costs on a $500,000 Renewal

Who Is Renewing Into These Rates

Rate Holds, Renewal Notices and the Case for Starting Early

The Rate Hold

The Renewal Statement

Two Levers Worth Checking: The Straight Switch and the Lump Sum

The Straight Switch

The Lump Sum

The Straight Switch

The Lump Sum

Questions to Investigate Before You Sign

Sources

Related Reading

Bank of Canada Holds Rates — Here’s What a 2026 Mortgage Renewal Could Cost You Now

Five-Year Bond Yield Jumped 14 Basis Points in a Day, Raising Renewal Costs for Owners

CREA Warns Renewing Owners That Fixed Rates Have Risen and Markets Now Price a 2026 Hike

CIBC and TD Add 20 Basis Points to Fixed Rates as Five-Year Yield Hits 3.729%

Five-Year Government Bond Yield Rose 56 Basis Points Since February, Pressuring Fixed Mortgage Renewals

Bank of Canada Deliberations Reveal Reasoning Behind Sixth-Straight 2.25% Hold as Renewal Wave Builds

Bank of Canada's New Prima Model Puts Your Mortgage Renewal at the Centre of Rate Decisions

The Bank of Canada Decides Tomorrow. If You Renew Before June, One Number Matters More Than the Rate