What is the most recent official breakdown of Government of Canada securities by holder type (domestic, foreign official, foreign private)?

1. Where the official breakdown lives and what it actually measures

The canonical place to find an official, regularly updated holder breakdown is the Bank of Canada’s “Government of Canada direct securities and loans: Distribution of holdings (formerly G4)” which reports holdings by holder category and has been revised to reflect methodological changes back to January 2003 ^[1]. Complementary Bank of Canada pages that report current holdings and which note adjustments for repo and securities‑lending activities provide daily “as of” snapshots (for example, pages updated as of January 20, 2026) and report holdings on a par value basis as of settlement date ^[3]. Statistics Canada’s debt securities tables — organized in a from‑whom‑to‑whom framework — provide quarterly issuer/holder residence and sector breakdowns that permit separation of foreign official (central banks and official institutions) from foreign private investors ^[2].

2. How holder categories are defined and one important interpretive caveat

The Bank of Canada’s “general public” and other holder categories are constructed with explicit inclusions — the general public residual includes other central banks, chartered banks, non‑bank dealers, other financial institutions and resident and non‑resident holders — which means some cross‑border and institutional holdings are aggregated into residual categories rather than cleanly labelled “foreign private” vs “domestic” without cross‑referencing Statistics Canada’s residence/sector tables ^[1]. Users must also note valuation and methodological rules: issues payable in foreign currencies are converted using specified exchange‑rate rules; holdings are shown at par or book value where available; and series have been revised historically when methodology changed ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

3. Practical steps to get the most recent numeric split

To obtain the latest numeric breakout by domestic, foreign official and foreign private holders, consult the Bank of Canada G4 “Distribution of holdings” time series for the specific “holder type” categories and latest date stamp ^[1] and Statistics Canada’s quarterly data table on “Debt Securities Issues and Holdings in a From‑Whom‑To‑Whom Framework” for residence and sector detail (table pid referenced in the StatCan index) to distinguish official foreign institutions from private foreign sectors ^[2]. The Bank of Canada holdings pages provide day‑specific snapshots that can be used to reconcile totals and to understand adjustments made for repos and securities lending ^[3].

4. Limits, possible sources of confusion and why it matters

Official publications make clear that classification and residual construction can mask detailed intra‑category composition — for example, the “general public” residual can contain both domestic and non‑resident institutional holders, so relying on a single table without cross‑referencing resident/sector StatCan tables risks misattributing holdings to “domestic” versus “foreign private” ^{[1] [6]}. Moreover, daily Bank of Canada holdings tables adjust for repo and securities lending (and exclude securities maturing on the “as of” date), which can produce timing differences with quarterly StatCan residence‑based statistics ^{[3] [2]}. These methodological points are central to interpreting headlines about “foreign ownership” of federal debt.

5. Bottom line

Authoritative, up‑to‑date numeric breakdowns exist in the Bank of Canada G4 distribution and Statistics Canada residence/sector tables; however, the exact numbers for the most recent date are not contained in the provided excerpts and must be read directly from the Bank of Canada “Distribution of holdings” table and the Statistics Canada debt‑securities table identified above ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Analysts should cross‑match both sources and check the notes on valuation and repos to produce a reconciled domestic / foreign‑official / foreign‑private split.