Thank you.
That's an excellent question because it highlights the fact that supporting the financial system is a team effort. The total we've done so far amounts to $341 billion, and that's outstanding. Of course, some of those activities have matured so the peak was somewhat higher than that, but that's how much is in there.
It seems like a very abstract number though, so I can take a second to talk about what that money is doing and the purpose of it. At the end of the day, it's to help households and businesses better deal with the financial hardship they might be feeling right now, but also to pave the way to a sustainable recovery. The governor spoke about that at the beginning.
Our activities range from providing short-term funding to financial institutions, corporations, provinces and municipalities to outright purchases of longer-term assets, so for corporate bonds, it would be corporate bonds with a remaining tender of less than five years. The reason we do that is to support those markets so that the private sector can also participate in a market that's more stable and that functions better. When that happens that means businesses have the working capital they need. It means that if households or businesses need to use their lines of credit, which they have had to do, the banks are there for them as much as they can be and so on. That complements some of the actions that CMHC has made in their IMPP, and OSFI has made in reducing the countercyclical capital buffer.
With respect to the decision on the restrictions to place on banks, their dividends versus their buybacks, that's out of the Bank of Canada's purview. The only thing that I would add before I turn it back to the governor is that's a decision of OFSI. It needs to be taken in the context of the fact that banks always have extra buffer in their capital than what they need as a regulatory requirement and that can be seen as a restriction on dividends the whole time. I'm going to turn it back to—