By Nivedita Balu

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada’s banking regulator wants the country’s biggest financial institutions to take “smart” risks to expand their lending and is open to adjustments in its capital rules to accommodate that goal, its head said.

“We want them to take smart risks,” Peter Routledge, the head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, said in an interview late last week.

“And we’re open to conversations about how assessing those smart risks might need to change through our capital requirements or our liquidity requirements,” he added.

Canada’s top six banks, which control roughly 90% of the market, are among the most resilient banks in the world, supported by OSFI’s strict requirements for reserves to shield them from loan defaults.

Known as the Big

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