Recent Canadian judicial decisions have established that a bank owes a duty of care to non-customers once it has actual knowledge of, or is wilfully blind to, the use of its services for fraudulent purposes. Depending on the circumstances, the possibility is still open that a bank may owe such a duty even where it does not have actual knowledge (or wilful blindness or recklessness) of the fraud.

Authored by Lincoln Caylor, Ilan Ishai, Martin S Kenney, Yves Klein and Kathy Bazoian Phelps. This article was first published in Business Law International, Vol 12 No 2, May 2011, and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London, UK. © International Bar Association 2011.