Good evening.
As the superintendent mentioned, one of OSFI's roles is to be prepared for threats to the financial system. Our guidance and expectations for financial institutions and private pension plans under our jurisdiction are aimed at supporting resilience.
OSFI's sustained efforts to review and develop guidelines have resulted in an effective supervisory and regulatory regime that protects depositors, policyholders, creditors, and private pension plan beneficiaries while allowing institutions to take reasonable risks and compete. Extraordinary times have required OSFI to ensure, more than ever, that our guidance is credible, consistent, necessary and fit for purpose in the Canadian context.
OSFI's first COVID-19-related regulatory announcement was on March 13, with the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Canada. In that announcement, we suspended our planned policy consultations and provided some measured regulatory flexibility on capital and liquidity requirements. We have been in frequent contact with institutions and with our regulatory partners to refocus efforts on the issues at hand.
As the superintendent mentioned, we continue to work with domestic and international partners. Domestic co-operation and collaboration is important, given the independent mandates of each organization and the various measures taken by other parts of government. International co-operation benefits us, as we can learn from actions taken by our peers, share valuable lessons and make decisions that reflect the international context, with the focus on resilience of Canadian institutions. These frequent touchpoints and our ongoing supervisory work with institutions have resulted in a series of announcements and letters to the industry sectors we oversee. These have all been made available on our website. Further, we have offered technical briefings for analysts, industry and pension plan administrators to share information and provide clarity on our expectations.
From these briefings and through communication with industry, we have developed questions and answers on recent COVID-19-related regulatory measures and put them on our website. These are updated regularly as conditions change, and when OSFI takes action. This promotes a consistent understanding of OSFI's expectations across market participants and limits speculation that can occur in the absence of clear information.
While areas of uncertainty remain in how the pandemic will affect financial institutions, the Canadian economy and the daily lives of Canadians, Canadians can have confidence that OSFI is working hard to continue meeting its mandate. OSFI will continue to consider potential regulatory changes during this exceptional period and will make sure that any further adjustments are credible, consistent, necessary and fit for purpose. We will continue to publicly communicate our expectations of institutions and are happy to answer questions that you may have.
Thank you.