Evidence of meeting #25 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was billion.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
What would be another issue? That's one disclosure, but what would be another one that you get a lot?
5:05 p.m.
Deputy Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
It depends on the year. When the branch closure regulations started up whereby banks were required to give disclosure on closing the branches, you would see in our statistics a balance in terms of not complying with the branch closure regulations. They have adjusted, and that's not an issue in today's regulatory environment.
Primarily, as I say, it's dealing with the disclosure up front of the terms and conditions of the credit card, line of credit, or loan the person is getting, and making it clear what the interest rate is, what the fees are going to be, and how the changes will occur or what the changes will be during the life of that agreement.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Okay, we're back to disclosures again.
Is there another? I'm just looking for the top two or three big things you deal with. There's no trap here. I'm just looking for the biggest things you deal with, so I can get a sense of what your agency is dealing with on a day-to-day basis.
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
If you are looking at the enforcement side, it is disclosure of different things. We have a variety of regulations. They deal with a variety of products, opening of accounts for example, but they are always at the end of the day about disclosure—clear, complete disclosure. So we're going to give you examples of disclosure.
The rest of the mandate, as I say, is on the education side.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Right. I understand that point. That's fine. I appreciate that. That's a great answer.
If you could recommend to this committee, or to Parliament, two things to change that would be an improvement for the consumer in the areas you are responsible for, assuming that the world is never perfect, what would they be? What areas would you like to see us looking at to enhance consumer protection across the country?
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
You're putting me on the spot here, but I'll respond.
I think the issue we see is that of course the world changes very quickly. The legislation and the regulations, quite frankly, don't really keep up, and what I would like to see is a more principles-based regime where we don't always have to try to play catch-up with products that don't quite fit into the four-square of the rules as they exist right now. That would be the big thing.
The other one is that I would love to have more money to do more consumer education.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes. Well, that's going to take me to my next question.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Very quickly? Okay.
On the national financial literacy program that was in the 2007 federal budget, you had certain goals that you set out for yourselves. Can you tell me how you're doing on that? Because that is the other half of your mandate, the education piece.
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Yes, right.
There's more to it than that, but that's certainly a big piece right now, and it's a key piece. Actually, I think we're doing very well. We're in the process of taking a product that was developed by British Columbia and turning it into a web-based product so people can access it in different ways.
The product that was prepared by British Columbia was meant for delivery in the classroom, so we're giving it an alternative delivery. We're doing another conference, and one of the key things we're spending a lot of time on is developing more of those partnerships that I was talking about. We can't deliver very much product ourselves. We can't deliver training except through the web, because we're a small group, so we are encouraging more partners to come in and help us deliver the product through the schools, the community associations, and the financial institutions. I'm happy if they do it too.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to our second round.
We have Mr. Pacetti for five minutes.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think we've found what we were looking for. It's on page 21, the complaints section, the tables in the 2006-07 annual report. Two of the major items obviously are the 33,000 inquiries and the almost 16,000 general inquiries. But I guess the troubling numbers are under the accounts heading. There are 261 complaints regarding chequing, and the other large amount is 326 complaints regarding collection. I'm wondering what those are about, if you would look at pages 20 and 21 of table 3.
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Yes.
Sorry, you're talking about the number 1,096 on cheques, for example? Is that the one you're talking about?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I'm not too worried about inquiries, but mainly about complaints, 261 of them.
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
I would only be guessing. I can't really tell you. What I can say is that one of the things to note about that particular table you're looking at is that these are complaints that do not include compliance matters. So I would be guessing, but I would suggest to you that these are probably service complaints of some sort.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Is that the same case for the collection on page 21?
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
That would be the same thing. Because the heading is excluding compliance matters, those again would be really beyond the jurisdiction of the agency. In that case, I'm not sure what it would be. It may be debt collection or debt collectors. I'm not really sure, to tell you the truth. I can't give you more specifics on that right now. If you would like us to look, we can.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Yes, perhaps you could just give us one or two lines through the clerk.
My question is in regard to the selling of the credit cards. Some of the banking institutions sold some of their credit card divisions to offset some of the losses they incurred. I'm just wondering what impact you foresee that having on the cost to consumers for their credit cards. Is it going to increase, or what is your prediction, or what do you feel is going to happen with that?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
I'm not exactly aware of the specifics that you're referring to. I didn't realize that banks had sold off their credit card operations. Are you aware of any of that? I'm not aware of that, quite frankly.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Yes, I think it was the Royal and the CIBC that sold part of their credit card.... Okay.
You also mentioned working in collaboration with CDIC. Is there any overlap there in terms of work that's being duplicated by CDIC?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
No, there is none whatsoever. Their mandate is quite different. We're starting to work together on advertising and consumer education. They don't really have a role in consumer education, but they would like to support the agency's work in that regard. So we're working together, but there is no overlap.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
There is nothing with the OSFI, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, I would imagine?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
No. Our mandate was basically carved out from theirs.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
The other question would be on identity theft. Has that been a concern to your organization?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Indeed it has. That's one that we spend quite a bit of time on, on the consumer education side, trying to remind consumers about how they should deal with their debit cards and their credit cards to reduce the risks of that. The reality is that a large part of that is not consumer-driven behaviour, but we do remind consumers about what they can do to protect themselves.