(October 4 – 16:10 ET) -The 1999-2000 annual report of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions was tabled today in the House of Commons.

According to Superintendent John Palmer, “Improving OSFI’s accountability framework has been a challenging undertaking because so few precedents exist within the public sector and virtually none has been available within the regulatory community. Therefore, I am particularly pleased with the steady progress that has been made in developing processes to evaluate how well OSFI is carrying out its legislative mandate.”

The report highlights a number of activities undertaken by OSFI over the past year to enhance its accountability. OSFI created a quality assurance and performance standards division to help evaluate its performance and assist in the continuing development of its performance standards.

The agency also implemented service standards for regulatory approvals, and participated in the first International Monetary Fund peer review of regulators, from which Canada received excellent marks. Also during the year, OSFI established a seven-member advisory board to provide the Superintendent with guidance on OSFI’s operations and performance.

The report also outlines some of the initiatives OSFI implemented to improve its ability to carry out its mandate to protect the savings of Canadians from undue loss. During the past year, OSFI improved rules for required capital that institutions must hold. It also made a further move toward User-Pay assessments charged to individual financial institutions for selected services.

“OSFI continues to transform itself in order to stay in step with the increasingly rapid pace of change being experienced in the Canadian and global financial services industries,” stated Palmer.”Globally, OSFI is amongst the most advanced regulators in setting standards for accountability and transparency, progress of which we are justifiably proud.”

The annual report can be accessed on OSFI’s Web site at the following address: www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca.
-IE Staff