Our role at OSFI is to give advice relative to our mandate, which is the protection of depositors and policy holders—the stability of banks, basically. We talked to the Department of Finance about a narrow slice of the many policy considerations that somebody in their chair needs to consider. Having said that, I would say that I don't view the changes as one size fits all. Where they have a common impact across Canada, it is where there are common vulnerabilities or common risks across Canada. As I said earlier, sound underwriting is sound underwriting, and where there are differences in risk in the regions of Canada, there is nothing in OSFIs guidelines that precludes the lenders in those areas from reflecting those risks in their policies.
We don't dictate that a rule has to be the same or that a risk appetite for an institution has to be the same across Canada. In particular, I would draw your attention to recent changes we've made to capital requirements for banks where we have targeted the policy. We have told banks that for mortgages in regions where housing price appreciation is outstripping income, they should be holding more capital. In regions where that's not the case, there is no expectation for that additional capital.
I think where it makes sense to have targeted policies, where the risks are differentiated by region, we have done that. Consumer indebtedness, as Sylvain said, is not unique to Vancouver and Toronto; it's a concern across Canada. It's something that we watch in all regions.