The Bank of Canada announced a change in the eligibility requirements for certain securities pledged as collateral under its Standing Liquidity Facility.

Effective immediately, the minimum pool size for National Housing Act Mortgage-Backed Securities (NHA MBS) to be considered eligible as collateral under the Bank of Canada’s SLF will be lowered to $25 million from $75 million.

The bank adds that the current margin requirements that apply to NHA MBS will be applied to all eligible pool sizes. It will be reviewing the margins applied to all securities pledged as SLF collateral, including NHA MBS. The results of this review will be announced by the end of June 2009 at the latest, the bank says.