Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A November 21 article in The Globe and Mail by Ms. Erica Alini and Ms. Rachelle Younglai discusses a practice adopted by at least two of Canada's major banks, TD and CIBC, and possibly by the Bank of Montreal as well. In the context of mortgages, these banks allow their distressed customers to defer the portion of the monthly interest that the customer is unable to pay during the month against the total mortgage amount, thereby inflating the total value of the mortgage. In the same article, if I understand correctly, they say that there are more and more mortgages being paid off over a period that exceeds 30 years.
I would like to hear what you, as Governor of the Bank of Canada, have to say about this.