Criminal Code — C-46 347
Criminal interest rate 347 (1) Despite any other Act of Parliament, every person who enters or offers to enter into an agreement or arrangement to receive interest at a criminal rate, who advertises an offer to enter into an agreement or arrangement that provides for the receipt of interest at a criminal rate or who receives a payment or partial payment of interest at a criminal rate is (a) guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or (b) guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to a fine of not more than $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years less a day, or to both. Definitions (2) In this section, credit advanced means the aggregate of the money and the monetary value of any goods, services or benefits actually advanced or to be advanced under an agreement or arrangement, or that would be advanced if an agreement or arrangement — as offered, including in an advertisement — was entered into, minus the aggregate of any required deposit balance and any fee, fine, penalty, commission and other similar charge or expense directly or indirectly incurred under the original or any collateral agreement or arrangement; ( capital prêté ) criminal rate means an annual percentage rate of interest calculated in accordance with generally accepted actuarial practices and principles that exceeds 35 per cent on the credit advanced; ( taux criminel ) insurance charge means the cost of insuring the risk assumed by the person who advances or is to advance credit under an agreement or arrangement, where the face amount of the insurance does not exceed the credit advanced; ( frais d’assurance ) interest means the aggregate of all charges and expenses, whether in the form of a fee, fine, penalty, commission or other similar charge or expense or in any other form, paid or payable for the advancing of credit under an agreement or arrangement, or that would be paid or payable if such an agreement or arrangement was entered into, by or on behalf of the person to whom the credit is or is to be advanced, or would be advanced, irrespective of the person to whom any such charges and expenses are or are to be paid or payable, or would be paid or payable, but does not include any repayment of credit advanced or any insurance charge, official fee, overdraft charge, required deposit balance or, in the case of a mortgage or hypothec transaction, any amount required to be paid on account of property taxes; ( intérêt ) official fee means a fee required by law to be paid to any governmental authority in connection with perfecting any security under an agreement or arrangement for the advancing of credit; ( taxe officielle ) overdraft charge means a charge not exceeding five dollars for the creation of or increase in an overdraft, imposed by a credit union or caisse populaire the membership of which is wholly or substantially comprised of natural persons or a deposit taking institution the deposits in which are insured, in whole or in part, by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or guaranteed, in whole or in part, by the Quebec Deposit Insurance Board; ( frais pour découvert de compte ) required deposit balance means a fixed or an ascertainable amount of the money actually advanced or to be advanced under an agreement or arrangement that is required, as a condition of the agreement or arrangement, to be deposited or invested by or on behalf of the person to whom the advance is or is to be made and that may be available, in the event of his defaulting in any payment, to or for the benefit of the person who advances or is to advance the money. ( dépôt de garantie ) Presumption (3) Where a person receives a payment or partial payment of interest at a criminal rate, he shall, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, be deemed to have knowledge of the nature of the payment and that it was received at a criminal rate. Proof of annual percentage rate (4) In any p