The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Canada's banking regulator has maintained the capital cushion the country's largest lenders must keep in reserve, even as calls mount to free up lending capacity to help boost the economy amid the U.S. trade war. The Globe's Stefanie Marotta writes that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI, said Thursday it is upholding the higher capital levels as a defence against elevated risks to the financial system, including high household debt and tariff pressures. OSFI said the domestic stability buffer -- capital that banks must maintain to endure the blow of an economic downturn -- will remain at 3.5 per cent of a bank's risk-weighted assets. The regulator has held this level since June, 2023, after a series of increases. "There is no compelling reason to lower the DSB," OSFI superintendent Peter Routledge told reporters. "The economy is doing better than we thought, the banks continue to deliver very good earnings, they continue to return capital to shareholders at a healthy rate, and that's not a bad thing from our perspective." Critics say this extra cash could instead be released to allow banks to lend it to businesses for major projects.