Senior Legal Counsel

Take a central role
The Bank of Canada has a vision to be “a leading central bank—dynamic, engaged and trusted—committed to a better Canada.” No other employer in the country offers you the unique opportunity to work at the very center of Canada’s economy, in a diverse and inclusive organization with significant impact on the economic and financial well-being of all Canadians. You will be challenged, energized and motivated to excel in an environment where we are reinventing central banking, renewing ways of doing business and reinforcing a culture of innovation.

Find out more about the next steps in our Recruitment process.

About Retail Payments Supervision (RPS)
The payments landscape in Canada and globally is changing rapidly. The rapid pace of technological change in Canada and around the world is introducing new and better ways for consumers and businesses to make payments.

The federal government is proposing to implement a new Retail Payments Supervisory (RPS) Framework. Under the proposed framework, the Bank of Canada would supervise retail payment service providers’ (PSPs) compliance with operational risk management and fund safeguarding requirements and maintain a public registry of regulated PSPs.

The Bank will assess whether PSPs are adequately managing their risks and help identify areas where their risk-management practices should be improved. To fulfill its mandate, the Bank will have a combination of compliance tools that would include allowing the Bank to enforce oversight requirements when necessary.

What you will do
As Senior Legal Counsel, you provide the Bank with expert legal services as a senior legal practitioner. You partner with the Bank’s Financial Stability Department to provide advice relevant to the Bank’s supervision of PSPs under the proposed retail payments oversight framework. Initially, you will be engaged in all aspects of the establishment and operationalization of the new oversight and enforcement frameworks. Once established, you will provide support for the Bank’s oversight and enforcement work. You will also engage and manage outside counsel autonomously to represent the Bank in situations where specialist advice is required and will be required to partner with internal clients and legal counsel at other organizations to support evolving Bank or departmental needs.

In addition, you will:

What you need to succeed
You have knowledge of Canadian regulatory law, with significant experience in administrative law issues, as well as the ability to provide practical legal advice to clients, whether developed in-house or in a law firm environment. You also possess strong research skills, combined with a deep interest in evolving legal issues and technological advancement in the financial sector, highly developed analytical skills and the ability to analyze and quickly grasp the essence of complex issues that have an impact on the Bank and the financial sector, and to independently develop appropriate responses.

Excellent verbal communication and writing skills as well as good planning and project management skills to successfully manage complex, sensitive and changing priorities while being able to adapt to unexpected circumstances as essential. You also require good relationship-building skills and can function both independently and as part of a team.

Your education and experience
This position requires a law degree and membership in a Canadian provincial law society with a minimum of eight post-call years of experience related to regulatory legal matters, with an emphasis on administrative law issues or an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Vaccination: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic that was declared by the World Health Organization, the mandates issued by the federal government, and the direction provided by public health authorities, the Bank of Canada requires all new employees to be fully vaccinated prior to their start date. If you are the selected candidate, you will be asked to first attest your vaccination status at the reference stage and will then be required to submit proof of vaccination status or request accommodation for a legitimate medical, religious reason or other human rights-based grounds at the offer stage as part of the offer process.

What you can expect from us
This is a great opportunity to join a leading organization and be part of a high-performing team. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet your needs at every stage of your life and career. For more information on key benefits please visit A great deal to consider.