Translation for Financial Services
Translation of prospectuses, annual reports, offering memoranda and holder communications for Canadian financial institutions. AMF and OSFI terminology, deadlines aligned with your filing dates.
What does Asiatis translate for financial services?
Asiatis translates the continuous disclosure documents of Canadian financial institutions: prospectuses, annual information forms, management discussion and analysis, holder communications and internal policies. Terminology follows that of the market authorities, and the translation schedule fits your regulatory filing dates rather than the reverse.
Documents handled
Each document type raises a difficulty of its own — and that is what decides how the engagement is organized.
Prospectuses and offering memoranda
The French text governs in Quebec; a divergence between versions is a liability exposure, not a typo.
MD&A and financial statements
Accounting captions follow fixed nomenclature — issuers are not free to vary them from one filing to the next.
Annual information form
A long document, largely carried over year to year — translation memory absorbs most of the volume.
Holder communications and proxy circulars
Simultaneous release in both languages: the schedule leaves no room for one version to lag.
Compliance policies and procedure manuals
Written for employees who must be able to rely on them in their own working language.
Service agreements and account conventions
Contracts of adhesion: the French version must be provided before the client accepts the English one.
Industry vocabulary
A few terms where the calque is expensive. They enter the account glossary on the first engagement.
- Placement
- Renders "offering", not "investment". A "placement privé" is a prospectus exemption, not a discreet investment.
- Porteur
- Rendered "holder". Filings in Quebec use "porteur" where general French would allow "détenteur".
- Information continue
- The issuer's periodic disclosure regime, not "ongoing information" in the everyday sense.
- Convention de prise ferme
- Underwriting agreement — the literal "subscription agreement" names a different instrument.
Applicable regulatory requirements
What makes translation mandatory in this sector, and under whose authority. We tell you what applies to your situation before the quote, not after the invoice.
Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF)
Disclosure documents aimed at Quebec investors are filed in French; that is the language in which the AMF receives them.
Official source: Autorité des marchés financiers (Quebec)Charter of the French Language (Bill 96)
Contracts of adhesion and client-facing documents are provided in French before any other language.
Official source: Charter of the French Language (CQLR c. C-11) — LégisQuébecOffice of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)
Federally chartered institutions deal with the regulator and their customers in both official languages.
Official source: Office of the Superintendent of Financial InstitutionsQuebec Law 25 and PIPEDA
Documents carrying personal financial information are handled as personal information for the whole engagement.
Official source: Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (CQLR c. P-39.1)
Last regulatory review: July 27, 2026. Provided for information only. This is not legal advice. Consult legal counsel for your own situation.
Most requested language pairs
Standard translation rates per word. Certified translation is billed differently and delivered in 2 to 3 business days.
| Language pair | Standard rate per word |
|---|---|
| English ↔ French (Quebec/Canada) | $0.17 – $0.19/word |
| English ↔ Mandarin (Chinese) | $0.17 – $0.19/word |
| English ↔ Spanish (Latin America) | $0.17 – $0.19/word |
The full grid is on the pricing page.
A representative engagement
Annual filing cycle
A reporting issuer files an annual information form, an MD&A and financial statements every year, inside a short fixed window. The engagement is built around the filing date: stabilized templates, a glossary locked onto the issuer's accounting nomenclature, and a memory that returns carried-over sections verbatim. What is genuinely new then narrows to the figures and the new facts.
Sector questions
Do you translate before or after the regulatory filing?
Before. The French version is part of the filing, not a later catch-up. We work on successive drafts, which avoids discovering a two-hundred-page document the night before the deadline.
How do you handle last-minute changes?
Changed text is isolated and retranslated on its own, with the memory returning the rest verbatim. That is exactly why memory matters on this kind of engagement: adjusting a figure must not reopen the whole document.
Do your translators know accounting nomenclature?
Financial engagements go to translators who work on continuous disclosure regularly, and the issuer's glossary overrides any individual preference.
Does a translated prospectus need to be certified?
A regulatory filing does not require a certified translator's seal the way an immigration file does. Some issuers still ask for an attestation; we provide one on request.
A project in this sector?
Send us your documents and your deadlines. You get a quote Quote in 1 business hour, spelling out what is a regulatory obligation and what is not.
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