Deputy Governor Wilkins and I are not here to defend the banks, but let me just say a few things.
First of all, as the senior deputy governor highlighted, OSFI regulates the banks. They have imposed some restrictions. The banks can't increase dividends, and they can't increase buybacks. We're not the U.S. We're not the U.K. OSFI is imposing restrictions that are appropriate for Canada.
With respect to the response of the banks, it's worth underlining that this crisis is very different from the one we faced in 2008 and 2009. That was a financial crisis. Banks, particularly in the U.S. and in Europe, were very much at the centre of that crisis. There was a huge credit crunch, and that's what caused the recession. In the last dozen years since the financial crisis, there has been a tremendous reform effort in the financial system. Hundreds of billions of dollars of additional capital have been built up, liquidity is much reinforced and leverage is much lower. That has put the financial system in a position this time to be part of the solution as opposed to the problem.
I recognize that not every person feels like they've been well treated. They're not happy with the pricing and they found the negotiation with their bank unpleasant, but banks in Canada have deferred 700,000 mortgages. They have increased business credit substantially. Loan growth to businesses is up about 30%. Loan growth to households is down, which really reflects what I was talking about earlier. The government has replaced the income that households have lost. Household savings are going up. They're not shopping as much, certainly not for large purchases, so their credit growth has slowed, but banks have dramatically increased their loans to businesses to help businesses bridge across that.
For the Bank of Canada's part, by lowering our policy rate and by embarking on large-scale asset purchases that have lowered yields at the curve, the cost of those loans to businesses has gone down. The interest rate of business loans is reduced by an average of about 140 basis points.
It's not perfect, but they are providing part of the solution.