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Canadian bond investors who thought they had about 30 days before the $300 million they lent insurer Great West Lifeco Inc. would be paid back came to work Monday to find it might take another 30 years instead.

Great West on April 15 opted not to exercise an option to payback one of its U.S. dollar bonds early. That means the money Great West borrowed in 2006 doesn’t have to be paid back until 2046, and — because the interest goes from fixed to floating-rate — lenders face coupon payments being cut by more than half if market rates stay where they are.

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Now investors are wondering if $45 billion more lent to the country’s financial sector could share the same fate.

“It’s a wake-up call,” said James Dutkiewicz, who manages $18 billion as chief investment strategist at Sentry Investments Inc. in Toronto, and owns some of Great West’s U.S. dollar notes. “Having a Canadian institution take advantage, on an economic basis of a floating rate, is the first.”