Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, members of the committee for the invitation today.
My name is Martha Durdin, and I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Credit Union Association, the CCUA.
CCUA, our association represents 252 credit unions and caisses populaires outside of Quebec. Credit unions contribute $6.5 million to Canada's economy, providing deposit, loan and wealth management services to 5.7 million Canadians.
Collectively, credit unions in regional centrals employ more than 29,000 employees and manage $225 billion in assets.
As their name suggests, financial cooperatives are cooperatives, which means that they belong to the people who do business with them. Having to satisfy our member-owners rather than the major shareholders encourages us to provide unparalleled customer service.
This year, Canadians once again ranked credit unions ahead of the federal chartered banks for customer service excellence. It was the 13th year in a row.
For rural members on the committee, it is also important to note that in almost 400 communities across Canada, credit unions are the only providers of financial services to households and small businesses.
We would like to congratulate the government on the introduction of this bill, which contains many important consumer protection measures we have advocated for. We support the various measures aimed at enhancing consumer protection in the financial services industry, from naming institutions that run afoul of the regulations to increasing monetary penalties and enhancing whistle-blower protections.
Particularly, the new requirement for financial institutions to disclose the self-imposed codes of conduct that they have adopted is a positive step forward, representing as it does an acknowledgement by the government of the importance of self-imposed codes.
That brings us to us. In CCUA's pre-budget submission to this committee, our primary recommendation was government support for the self-imposed credit union industry market code of conduct currently under development by my organization and leaders of the credit union system. For members, this would be highly preferable to any new prescriptive regulations and would enhance consumer protection in financial services.
We're prepared to work with this committee and the government to establish this market code of conduct in a way that is consistent with the government's regulatory objectives and proportional and appropriate for our credit union sector, given the fundamental distinctions that exist between it and our players in the Canadian financial system.
As we head into the final phase of the review of the financial sector legislation ahead of 2019, we would urge the committee and the government to continue to take into account the specific regulatory needs of our sector, and to craft policy through the lens of a smaller financial institution with a view to enhancing competition.
Our submission to the finance department, as part of its ongoing financial institutions legislative review, included suggestions to improve the Bank Act provision for governing federal credit unions, which we hope will be addressed in the final round of reform next year. We recommend enacting a threshold of 500 members, or 1%, of a federal credit union's membership, for advancing special resolution proposals at an annual meeting of members; ensuring a federal credit union's membership list is protected; amending the Bank Act to only permit disclosure of a membership list to a third party as an intermediary to facilitate communication between a member and the broader membership; allowing electronic voting in advance of the federal credit union's AGM; and several other governance-related recommendations.
Our sector is strong and represents a key component of the Canadian financial system. In a market dominated by a small number of huge financial institutions, we represent the only real competition that exists in Canada. We need regulations and legislation that recognize the unique, important role we play. This bill helps us achieve this, but there is more work to be done.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our perspective. I look forward to your questions.