Yes, as the governor said, we actually expect that the bank will show negative equity in the coming months. This isn't a problem that's unique to the Bank of Canada. All of our peer central banks in G7 countries are experiencing the same thing.
There are a variety of different options in how to deal with it, though. For example, our peer central bank in the U.S. uses U.S. GAAP accounting standards. They will take the negative equity and turn it into a deferred asset, and then they will run that deferred asset down over time as earnings turn positive again.
At other central banks, the governments have put an indemnity in place that offsets the negative equity. The Bank of Canada has an indemnity in place right now, but that indemnity covers what we call market losses. Those losses would occur if we were to sell assets. We're not planning to do that. These are operating losses. Another option would be to extend the range of that indemnity.
A third option would be to change the legislation, which would allow the bank to retain its earnings. Right now the Bank of Canada is required, under legislation, to return its earnings to the government each year. In a normal year, that would be about $1 billion in earnings. Over the last several years, we've returned an additional $2.6 billion to government. A third option would require a change to our act to allow us to retain our earnings, and then over time those would offset the losses. When we are back into a positive position, we would go back to returning our revenue to the government each year.
This is a decision for government. They're actively working on it right now. We expect that in the coming future they will make a final decision.