The Last Two Big Six Banks Reprice, and What a Fifth of a Point Means on Your Balance
Credit: Homeowner.ca
On September 29, 2026, CIBC and TD raised select fixed mortgage rates by 20 basis points, with most of the change landing on three- and five-year terms. The two banks were the last of the Big Six to move. BMO, National Bank, RBC and Scotiabank had already repriced select fixed rates in recent weeks, after the five-year Government of Canada bond yield climbed to a new 52-week high of 3.729% on Monday, September 28.
Twenty basis points sounds like rounding. It is not. Applied to a real mortgage balance, a fifth of a percentage point becomes a monthly payment increase you can see on a bank statement, and a five-year cost measured in thousands of dollars.
This article covers what changed and why bond yields drive fixed-rate pricing. It also puts dollar figures on the increase across common balances and sets out what to check if you have a renewal or a rate hold coming due. It does not forecast where rates go next, and it is not a recommendation to lock in, switch or refinance.
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According to Canadian Mortgage Trends' September 29 report, both banks increased several fixed rates by 20 basis points, with much of the movement on three- and five-year fixed mortgages. Some shorter fixed terms also moved higher. The report did not publish a product-by-product table of old and new rates, so the exact posted rate you see will depend on the term, the product and whether the mortgage is insured.
That distinction matters. "CIBC raised rates" does not mean every CIBC mortgage rate went up by the same amount. It means the pricing on select fixed products shifted, concentrated in the two terms Canadians choose most often.
The same report put the broader round of lender increases between five and 40 basis points across one- to five-year fixed terms, with most falling between 15 and 30 basis points. CIBC and TD's 20-point moves sit in the middle of that band. They are neither an outlier nor a signal that the two banks are leading the market. They are catching up to it.
Earlier coverage of this cycle traces how the first movers responded when yields began to climb.
Read our report on TD and Scotiabank's earlier fixed-rate increases as the five-year yield hit 3.32%.
The September 29 moves close out a sequence that started in early September. In a September 12 Canadian Mortgage Trends analysis, major lenders had already raised fixed rates by 10 to 20 basis points in a single week as the five-year yield rose about 25 basis points. Broker Clinton Wilkins described lenders as "trying to hold the line for as long as they could," adding that "that's not a sustainable game."
By the end of the month, all six of Canada's largest banks had repriced select fixed rates.
There is a second layer that the posted rate does not show. Ron Butler, a mortgage broker quoted in the same piece, said some lenders also removed discretionary specials at the same time. In his words, "the published rate changes 20 bps, but if you remove discretion... some of those are 40 bps changes."
That is one broker's read of the market, not lender data. But it points to a practical reality: the rate a borrower is actually offered often sits below the posted rate, and when banks pull back on those discounts, the effective increase can be larger than the headline.
For the policy backdrop to this cycle, see our coverage of the Bank of Canada holding at 2.25% while long bond yields pushed fixed rates up.
A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. One hundred basis points equal 1%, so a 20-basis-point increase adds 0.20 percentage points. A 4.55% rate becomes 4.75%.
The five-year Government of Canada bond yield is the benchmark lenders watch for five-year fixed mortgage funding costs. When that yield rises, the cost of money that backs a five-year fixed mortgage rises with it, and lenders adjust their fixed rates to protect the spread between what they pay and what they charge. The relationship is a pricing reference, not a formula. Rates do not move one-for-one with the yield, and lenders do not move on the same day.
The five-year yield reached 3.729% on Monday, September 28, before easing to about 3.677% on Tuesday morning. Even after that dip, it remained roughly 23 basis points above its September 8 close of 3.448%. That 23-point gap between early September and late September is almost exactly the size of the increases CIBC and TD applied.
Canadian Mortgage Trends linked the yield increase to a broader global bond selloff driven by energy-related inflation concerns. Citing Bloomberg, it reported that Brent crude slipped below US$105 on September 29 but remained up about 70% on the year. That is the only global context needed here: higher energy prices raised inflation worries, bond investors demanded higher yields, and Canadian fixed mortgage pricing followed.
Fixed-rate increases do not require a Bank of Canada decision. The central bank sets the overnight rate, which drives prime and variable rates. Bond markets set the benchmark for fixed rates. The two can move in different directions.
For a longer view of how far the benchmark has travelled this year, see our report on the five-year yield's 56-basis-point rise since February.
Take a $450,000 mortgage amortized over 25 years with monthly payments. At 4.55%, the estimated payment is about $2,503. At 4.75%, it is about $2,554. That is a difference of roughly $50 a month.
Over a five-year term of 60 payments, the gap adds up to about $3,024 in additional payments. The interest cost is larger than that. Because a higher rate means less of each payment goes to principal, the extra interest paid over those five years comes to about $4,315, and the balance left at the end of the term is about $1,290 higher.
These figures use semi-annual compounding, the convention for Canadian fixed-rate mortgages. As a scale check, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's amortization example shows a $300,000 mortgage over 25 years costing $1,660.42 a month at 4.5% and $1,710.82 at 4.8%, a difference of $50.40 for a 30-basis-point gap.
The effect scales with the size of the mortgage. Roughly, each $100,000 of balance adds about $11 a month for every 20 basis points.
Assumptions: 25-year amortization, monthly payments, semi-annual compounding. Figures are Homeowner.ca estimates rounded to the nearest dollar, and exclude property tax, mortgage default insurance premiums and lender fees. The 4.55% and 4.75% rates are illustrative, not quotes from CIBC or TD. Your lender's calculation may differ.
None of these numbers is dramatic on its own. The point is that they are real, they repeat every month for the full term, and they arrive without any change in your income or your home.
Borrowers who secured a rate hold before this repricing may be holding a rate set when the five-year yield was lower. Holds written around September 8 were priced when the benchmark closed at 3.448%, about 23 basis points below where it sat on September 29. Whether a specific hold beats what a lender is offering today depends on the product, the term and the terms of the hold itself.
Both banks advertise holds of up to 120 days. CIBC's pre-approval page says its certificate guarantees the rate for up to 120 days from the certificate date, provided the borrower's financial situation does not change, and notes that pre-approval is conditional and does not guarantee final approval.
TD's published materials also describe holding a pre-approved rate for 120 days, subject to conditions, on its mortgage information for newcomers.
Neither bank's public pages say that submitting a new application cancels an existing hold or resets it at current pricing. That does not mean it never happens. It means the rule is not published, and policies can differ by lender, channel, product and borrower. Ask before you act.
Before you shop, call your lender and get three answers in writing: the exact expiry date of your current hold, the rate and term it covers, and whether any new application, product change or pre-approval would replace it.
For mortgages held with a federally regulated lender such as a bank, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's renewal guidance says the lender must send a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends. That statement must list the remaining balance, the interest rate, the payment frequency, the term and any fees.
Twenty-one days is a floor, not a planning window. The agency advises shopping around a few months before the term ends, notes that you may be able to negotiate a rate below the one in your renewal letter, and warns that if you take no action, renewal may be automatic.
A practical sequence for anyone renewing in the next four months looks like this:
Readers weighing the renewal side can also see how the five-year yield's one-day 14-basis-point jump fed into renewal costs.
This repricing is a fixed-rate event. Variable-rate mortgages are priced off each lender's prime rate, and prime follows the Bank of Canada's overnight rate, not the five-year bond yield.
The Bank of Canada's Daily Digest listed the chartered-bank prime rate at 4.45% on both September 16 and September 23, with no change between the two readings. The Bank's target for the overnight rate was 2.25% on September 28 and 29.
The Bank of Canada's next scheduled rate announcement is Wednesday, October 28, at 9:45 a.m. ET, alongside its October Monetary Policy Report. Until then, a variable-rate borrower's payment or amortization does not change because of anything CIBC or TD did on September 29.
There is one indirect effect worth noting. A variable-rate borrower who is thinking about converting to a fixed rate, or whose term is ending, now faces higher fixed pricing than a month ago. That affects the comparison, not the current mortgage.
For the broader policy picture, see what the Bank of Canada's recent deliberations signalled for renewers.
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About the Author
Angela Nightingale is the Senior Editor at Homeowner.ca with two decades of experience in digital publishing and content strategy. She has owned two homes, taken on her share of DIY projects, and learned what most guides fail to mention. She writes from the belief that the best home guidance comes from people who have lived through the decisions — and her goal is always to leave readers feeling confident, not overwhelmed.
