A public owner's checklist for accepting surety bonds: Treasury Circular 570, checking surety licences in Canada, power of attorney, penal sums, forms and e-bonds.
Education only / verify at source / not legal advice. Bond requirements on a public works project come from the governing statute, regulation and your own solicitation. Global Guarantors publishes industry education drawn from public government and association sources. We don't publish premiums, quotes, brokerage or legal advice. Your solicitation and your counsel decide what you must accept or reject.
Start here: Surety vs insurance + indemnity · Bond wordings and public specimens · Glossary
A public works bond protects the owner only if three things are true: the surety is authorized to write it, the bond is genuine, and the wording and amount match what the owner required. If any one of those fails, the owner may discover the problem at the worst possible moment, when a contractor has defaulted or subcontractors are unpaid and someone finally reads the bond closely.
That is why bond verification belongs at the front of the process, at bid opening and again at contract award, not at the claim stage. In a surety bond the owner is the obligee, the contractor is the principal, and the surety is the company that guarantees the principal's obligation. If you want a refresher on how surety's three-party structure works, start there; and for the policy background on why public owners require bonds in the first place, see our companion guide.
This guide walks through the acceptance decision as a public owner or contracting officer would make it, in three questions:
We cover the United States first (federal, then state and local), then Canada, with Ontario's public-contract bond rules as the worked example. The checklist near the end pulls it together, and the What to verify at the source box lists what you should confirm yourself on the day you accept a bond.
On federal contracts, corporate sureties offered for bonds for work in the United States must appear on the Department of the Treasury's Circular 570, formally "Companies Holding Certificates of Authority as Acceptable Sureties on Federal Bonds and as Acceptable Reinsuring Companies" (FAR 28.202(a)(1)). In the industry it is often called the T-List.
Which version to check. Treasury publishes Circular 570 annually; the 2026 revision took effect August 1, 2026. Companies are added, changed and terminated between revisions, and Treasury posts those interim changes on its Surety Bonds website as they occur. The most current picture is Treasury's List of Certified Companies, so check that list, not a saved PDF from earlier in the year.
Check the exact writing company. Surety groups often include several affiliated companies with similar names. The company on the Circular 570 list must be the same legal entity named as surety on the bond, not a sister company.
The underwriting limit is a per-bond figure. Each listed company carries an underwriting limitation. That limit applies to a single bond; it does not cap how large a bond the company can write. If a penal sum is larger than the writing company's limit, the bond is acceptable when the excess is protected by co-insurance or reinsurance within each co-insurer's or reinsurer's own limit (FAR 28.202(a)(2)–(3); 31 CFR 223.10–11). Reinsurance agreements generally come in with the bonds. Where the solicitation allows it, the FAR also lets a contracting officer accept a direct writer's bond for the full amount while the reinsurance agreements are completed. The contractor must submit them within the time the bid form sets, which can't be more than 45 calendar days after the bond is executed. The forms are SF 273 (Reinsurance Agreement for a Bonds Statute Performance Bond), SF 274 (Reinsurance Agreement for a Bonds Statute Payment Bond) and SF 275 (Reinsurance Agreement in Favor of the United States, for other bonds) (FAR 28.202(a)(4); FAR 28.106-1). A bond above the limit is not "invalid"; the question is whether the excess is properly co-insured or reinsured and documented.
Foreign-country contracts. For contracts performed outside the United States, a surety not on Circular 570 is acceptable only if the contracting officer determines that using a listed surety is impracticable (FAR 28.202(b)).
If Treasury terminates a surety. When a company's certificate of authority is terminated, contracting officers review their outstanding contracts with that surety and take action to protect the Government, including obtaining replacement bonds where appropriate (FAR 28.202(c)). Owners who rely on Circular 570 should diarize periodic checks of the list for the life of the bond, not only at award.
Contact for Treasury's surety office. FAR 28.202(d) still prints an older Treasury address and link. Treasury's current Surety Bond Branch contact is 200 Third Street, T3-D, Parkersburg, WV 26106; phone (304) 480-6635; email surety.bonds@fiscal.treasury.gov. Use the current Treasury pages listed in our Sources.
Circular 570 is a federal list for federal bonds. It doesn't govern state, municipal or Canadian bonds, although some state and local solicitations choose to reference it. Read your own statute and solicitation.
State agencies, counties, cities, school districts and special districts set their own bond requirements by statute, ordinance and solicitation. Many require the surety to be admitted, that is, licensed by the state insurance department to write surety business in that state. The question to ask is whether this specific writing company holds a current licence in your state for surety.
Treasury's own surety pages point owners to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) directory of state insurance departments, which links to each state's insurance department. Two examples of state lookups:
For any other state, check your state insurance department. Look up the exact legal name on the bond, confirm the licence is active, and keep a dated copy of the result in your bond file. If your solicitation also requires Circular 570 listing or another standard, check that separately; admitted status and Treasury listing are different tests.
Canada splits insurer oversight between two levels of government, and owners need to know which one answers which question.
Federal (OSFI). The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions regulates federally regulated property and casualty insurers for solvency, and publishes its "Who we regulate" list, also available as an Open Government dataset. OSFI registration is useful background, but it doesn't by itself mean a surety may write business in a given province.
Provincial. The provinces and territories license insurers and regulate market conduct. The provincial licence is what tells you whether a company may write surety in your jurisdiction. In Ontario, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) licenses insurance companies and publishes a listing of Ontario licensed insurers, including their licence classifications; look for the Surety class. FSRA updates the listing as changes occur, gives no ratings or recommendations, and also offers phone confirmation (416-250-7250 or 1-800-668-0128).
For Ontario public contracts covered by section 85.1 of the Construction Act, the statute itself sets the test: the bonds must come from an insurer licensed under Ontario's Insurance Act to write surety and fidelity insurance. More on that section below.
The Surety Association of Canada (SAC), in its guidance on electronic bonding, takes the same position: surety companies named on a bond must be licensed by Canadian or provincial regulators to provide surety for the geographic scope the bond covers. Outside Ontario, check your own province's or territory's insurance regulator.
Federal rules also allow individual sureties, people rather than insurance companies, on all bond types except position schedule bonds (FAR 28.203-1). Because these bonds don't come from a regulated insurer, the acceptance work shifts to the assets.
The FAR also builds in guardrails. Individuals can be excluded, for example for misrepresenting assets or making false statements, and exclusions appear in the System for Award Management (SAM). Contracting officers may not accept bonds from excluded individual sureties unless the acquiring agency's head or a designee states the compelling reasons in writing, and possible criminal or fraudulent activity must be referred (FAR 28.203-1(g); 28.203-5). Security interests stay in place for set periods; on Miller Act contracts, until the later of one year after final payment, the end of the warranty period (performance bonds only), or resolution of payment-bond claims filed in the year after final payment (FAR 28.203-3(a)).
State and local owners should check whether their own statute permits individual sureties at all before considering one.
A bond that names an authorized surety can still be forged, altered, or signed by someone without authority. The second step is confirming that the surety itself issued this bond, for this amount, through this attorney-in-fact.
Contact the surety through an independent channel. SFAA, the US surety trade association, describes contacting the issuing surety directly as the most reliable way to authenticate a bond. The important word is independent: find the surety's contact details from a source you control, never from the cover letter, phone number or email in the bond package itself. Good sources include:
What the SFAA directory is, and isn't. SFAA doesn't offer an online tool that validates bonds. It publishes a Bond Verification Contact Directory (formerly called the Bond Obligee Guide), a PDF listing participating member sureties and how each prefers to receive verification requests. The latest edition we found is 2024–25. Participation is voluntary and covers members only, so a surety's absence from it says nothing about the bond. Some sureties listed in the directory run their own online validation forms; where one does, that surety's form is the verification channel.
Verify the power of attorney. A bond is signed for the surety by an attorney-in-fact, whose authority comes from a power of attorney (POA). Check that:
On federal bid bonds, FAR 28.101-3 sets out the rules. A bid bond signed by an attorney-in-fact must come with evidence of authority; an original, photocopy or fax of the POA is acceptable, and electronic or printed signatures and seals on the POA are treated as originals. A missing signed and dated POA at bid opening is a responsiveness question; doubts about whether the POA is authentic are a responsibility question. If the surety disavows the POA, the FAR doesn't allow a substitute POA or a substitute surety.
Document the call. FAR 28.101-3 requires a contracting officer who contacts the surety to document the name of the person contacted, the date and time, and the response. That is good practice for any owner: write down who you spoke to, when, how you found their contact details, and what they confirmed.
For a step-by-step walk-through of the mechanics, see our guide to step-by-step bond authentication, which covers Treasury lookups, POA checks and verification calls in more detail.
A genuine bond from an authorized surety can still be the wrong bond. The third step is a line-by-line comparison against your solicitation.
Obligee. The obligee should be your exact legal name, or the agency's, as the solicitation specifies. A department name, a project name, or a parent government's name may not be the same legal entity.
Principal. The principal should match the bidder or contractor's legal name on the bid and the contract, including any corporate suffix. A joint venture should appear as the joint venture the contract names.
Penal sum. Check the amount against the requirement. On federal construction contracts over $150,000, the FAR default is a performance bond of 100% of the original contract price, unless the contracting officer determines a lesser amount is adequate. The payment bond is 100% of the original contract price unless the contracting officer determines in writing, with specific findings, that this is impractical. It can never be less than the performance bond, and both rise with contract price increases (FAR 28.102-2(b); 40 U.S.C. § 3131(b)). Contracts over $35,000 up to $150,000 use payment protection rather than a required performance bond (FAR 28.102-1(b)). In Ontario, section 85.1 public contracts require each bond to cover at least 50% of the contract price. Many state and local owners set their own percentages. Whatever the rule, the bond must meet the one in your solicitation.
Form. Compare the document against the specimen your solicitation requires, word for word where you can.
Look for edits: added conditions, deleted clauses, changed notice periods, or a riders page that alters the specimen. Any change should be one you agreed to.
Dates and project. Check the bond date and effective date, the contract and solicitation numbers, and the project description and location. A bond for "Phase 1" doesn't cover "Phases 1–3."
Signatures and seals. The principal's signature, the attorney-in-fact's signature, and the corporate seals where the form calls for them. The attorney-in-fact's name should match the POA exactly.
Jump to the 11-step bond acceptance checklist
More bonds now arrive electronically. A digital bond can actually be easier to verify than paper, but only if the owner knows what a real e-bond is.
The Surety Association of Canada says a proper e-bond meets three criteria: integrity of content, secure access, and verifiability and enforceability. E-bonds typically carry a digital signature, a digital corporate seal, and a verification tag or link. SAC also says the e-bond should be submitted as its own file, not merged into a larger bid PDF.
SAC has published sample owner tender language for electronic bid bonds (March 2020, for use in all provinces except Quebec). Under that language, the owner can verify the entire bond, including content, digital signatures and seals, with the surety or its approved verification provider at any time, without passwords or fees. Results give a clear pass or fail, and bonds that fail are not valid. SAC's white paper on digital bonds adds a simple point: owners can specify in the tender that bonds be submitted in a verifiable digital format.
Two cautions apply on both sides of the border:
Keep the pass/fail verification record in your bond file alongside the bond itself. For background on how e-bonds are executed and delivered, see our e-bonding guide.
Acceptance isn't a one-time event. Contracts change, and the bond has to keep up. The FAR's federal rules are a useful model even for owners who aren't bound by them.
Federal contracts can also use alternatives in place of corporate or individual sureties, such as a bond secured by an irrevocable letter of credit. Under FAR 28.204-3, each bond requirement needs a separate letter of credit, payable on written demand only, issued or confirmed by an acceptable federally insured institution.
Whatever rules apply to you, diarize two things: periodic checks that the surety is still authorized (for federal bonds, the Circular 570 interim changes), and the rider or consent each contract change needs.
Ontario's Construction Act sets out a specific statutory bond rule for public owners. Under section 85.1, on a public contract, meaning one where the owner is the Crown, a municipality or a broader public sector organization, the contractor must furnish a labour and material payment bond and a performance bond.
For an Ontario owner, the acceptance checks follow directly: confirm on the FSRA listing that the writing company holds the surety class, confirm each bond meets 50% (or your higher requirement), and compare the documents against the current prescribed Form 31 and Form 32. Don't assume an older version of Form 31 is still current.
| Question | United States | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Who may write the bond? | Federal: Treasury Circular 570 / List of Certified Companies. State and local: usually admitted status with the state insurance department (NAIC directory; e.g., TDI, CDI). | Provincial licence governs (e.g., FSRA Ontario, licence class "Surety"). OSFI's "Who we regulate" covers federally regulated insurers. |
| Is the amount within the surety's limit? | Federal: underwriting limit per bond; excess co-insured or reinsured (SF 273/274/275). | Check your statute and tender; Ontario s. 85.1 bonds need an insurer licensed for surety and fidelity insurance. |
| Is the bond genuine? | Contact the surety through an independent source (Circular 570 address, surety website, SFAA Bond Verification Contact Directory). Verify the POA. | Contact the surety or its approved e-bond verification provider (SAC). Verify POA evidence for digital signatories. |
| Which form? | SF 24 / 25 / 25A (federal); state or owner form. | Ontario Forms 31 / 32 on s. 85.1 contracts; CCDC 220 / 221 / 222 or owner form as tendered. |
Verified October 11, 2026 (PT). Verify at the source.
This is a general checklist for education. Your solicitation, statute and counsel set the actual requirements.
Authorized?
Right bond?
Genuine?
Afterwards
None of these proves anything on its own; each is a reason to slow down and verify through an independent channel.
Retrieved or confirmed 2026-10-11 (PT).
