Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This amendment affects clause 87, clause 163, and clause 361 as well, so we could group those, Mr. Chairman, if you wish.
The bill makes improvements to the unclaimed balances regime for consumers, to make it more efficient. The bill would now provide that consumers have to receive notice from their financial institution after two years, after five years, and after nine years of inactivity. After the nine-year notice, the funds would be transferred to the Bank of Canada.
The current wording in the bill may seem ambiguous, possibly suggesting that the federally regulated financial institutions need to provide information to the Bank of Canada upon the transfer of the unclaimed funds, even if they don't know the information. That means they'd have to try to find a lot of details about the account, so this technical amendment in those four sections would clarify that deposit-accepting institutions only need to provide the information that is known to them with respect to the unclaimed deposits and instruments transferred to the Bank of Canada. That is what the amendment is about.