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Mortgage payments rose to 6.6 per cent of disposable income in the fourth quarter, up from 6.1 per cent five years ago.

“Meanwhile, the proportion of riskier uninsured mortgages continues to rise, increasing asset risk for the largest eight Canadian mortgage lenders,” the report adds.

There are also signs that some consumers, facing higher mortgage costs, are agreeing to “longer term manufacturer-subsidized auto loans” with lower payments.

“As vehicles depreciate each year, longer-term loans result in higher rates of ‘negative equity’ where the value of the vehicle is less than the amount of loan principal,” the report says.

The latest from Moody’s comes as the Canadian economy has shown some signs of stalling. Job growth surprised to the upside in February, but economic growth slowed to 0.1 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2018.

In announcing it was holding its key policy rate at 1.75 per cent earlier this month, the Bank of Canada had said the slowdown in the last three months of the year “was sharper and more broadly based” than had been expected.

This could spell some trouble for Canada’s big banks, which still derive much of their business from their home market.

Moody’s report showed that Canada’s Big Six banks still control the majority of the mortgage market in the country, albeit maybe not as much as they used to.

“Smaller lenders have gained market share in residential mortgage lending over the past two years; the largest six banks’ share has fallen almost 1% to just under 69% at the end of 2018,” the report says.