This month’s list of rate moves comes from an industry rate feed that reports changes for 74 Canadian institutions, stamped with the date each institution made them. That is a slice of the market, not all of it: it covers fewer than half of the brands on our GIC boards. The best-rate table further down is different. It reads the full boards, every brand we track, as of October 13.
The backdrop: still parked at 2.25%
The Bank of Canada’s overnight target has been 2.25% since October 30, 2025, a full year without a move. Prime is 4.45%. Nothing in the policy rate explains what happened to GIC pricing in the second half of September, which is what makes it worth a look.
The big banks moved first
Three of the Big Six raised their GIC rates within eight days of each other, and by more than anyone else in the feed:
- TD Canada Trust, September 16: up 0.30 to 0.45 points across one to five years. Its 5-year rate went from 3.10% to 3.55%.
- National Bank, September 16: up 0.30 to 0.55 points, the largest increases on the list, with 5-year rates now between 3.45% and 4.00% depending on the product.
- BMO, September 24: up 0.30 to 0.45 points across one to five years, with its 5-year now 3.45% to 3.55%.
Desjardins followed between September 22 and 29, lifting its 5-year GICs by 0.25 to 0.50 points.
Big-bank moves of this size, all in one direction and with no policy change behind them, are a sign of banks competing harder for deposits. For savers the practical effect is narrower: a renewal offer from one of these three banks is better than it was a month ago, and still well short of the top of the market.
The rest of the feed: mostly up, in small steps
Of the 74 institutions in the feed, 52 changed at least one GIC rate between September 13 and October 13, and increases outnumbered cuts by roughly two and a half to one. The notable moves:
- Hubert Financial raised its 3- to 5-year rates by 0.30 to 0.35 points on October 1. Its 5-year now pays 4.25%.
- Oaken Financial made several small increases between September 14 and October 2 (0.10 to 0.25 points), taking its 5-year to 4.50%.
- Manulife Bank lifted rates by up to 0.35 points on September 18 and 25.
- Luminus Financial raised its 2-year by 0.65 points on September 29, the largest single increase in the feed this month.
- Tangerine nudged its 1-, 3-, 4- and 5-year rates up 0.05 to 0.10 points on October 3.
The cuts were small and came mostly from banks that sell GICs through brokers and reprice almost daily (Home Trust, VersaBank, Haventree Bank, Community Trust and others), where rates moved a few hundredths of a point both ways through the month.
Mortgage rates in the feed went the other way from what borrowers want. RBC, Scotiabank, TD, CIBC, BMO and National Bank all raised at least one mortgage rate, by 0.04 to 0.30 points, and FirstNational lifted its rates by up to 0.24 points between September 21 and 29. Fixed mortgage rates follow bond yields rather than the Bank of Canada’s rate, so this isn’t a contradiction of the parked policy rate. Savings rates in the feed barely moved.
Where the best GIC rates sit now
The best non-registered GIC at each term on our boards as of October 13, counting only institutions open to anyone in Canada, against the Bank of Canada’s published average of the big banks’ posted rates (week of October 7):
| Term | Best rate on our boards | Big-bank posted average | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 4.00% (Haventree Bank) | 2.45% | +1.55 |
| 2 years | 4.25% (Oaken Financial, Wealth One Bank of Canada) | n/a | n/a |
| 3 years | 4.40% (Wealth One Bank of Canada) | 3.20% | +1.20 |
| 4 years | 4.45% (Wealth One Bank of Canada) | n/a | n/a |
| 5 years | 4.50% (Oaken Financial, Wealth One Bank of Canada) | 2.75% | +1.75 |
Even after September’s increases, the gap is large. TD’s new 5-year rate of 3.55% is 0.95 points below the top of the board; on a $50,000 deposit, that’s about $475 a year in interest. Against the posted average the gap is 1.75 points, or about $875 a year on the same deposit.
What to do with this
If a GIC of yours matures this fall, the big-bank increases are a reason to read your renewal offer closely, not a reason to accept it. Compare it with the board for your term, and if you’d rather not keep checking, set a rate alert. We watch the moves so you don’t have to.
Rates referenced in this article were checked against Ratehunter's data on the publication date shown above and may have changed since — the rate boards always carry the current numbers. See our editorial standards andadvertiser disclosure.