Thank you. Good morning.
Madam Chair, members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is a federal agency that operates independently. We are primarily funded by the financial institutions that we regulate. Our mandate is to protect financial consumers in Canada, and we do that in two principal ways.
First, we supervise the federally regulated financial entities, primarily banks, for their compliance with the consumer protection measures in legislation. Second, we strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians through programs, tools and resources to help them make informed financial decisions, as informed consumers are better protected consumers. In addition, we undertake research and experimentation to provide the evidence to support these efforts.
All of this work is carried out in close collaboration with many organizations and individuals in the public, private and non-profit sectors. This enables us to extend our reach and our impact across the country.
As you know, financial literacy is a vital skill that people develop and augment as they go through the various stages of life, and starting young makes a difference. We thus undertake various activities focused on helping people develop good financial habits early in life.
For example, young Canadians were a key target audience of ours during the tenth annual financial literacy month, which just wrapped up yesterday. We hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Canadian Bankers Association that targeted young graduates.
We've also developed and piloted educational training materials for post-secondary students in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Colleges and Institutes Canada. We chair a federal government committee of departments and agencies, which includes ESDC, that exchanges information and coordinates efforts on financial literacy.
These are just a few examples of how FCAC is helping advance financial literacy. As you can see, collaboration is central to our efforts, and our partnerships have proven to be a successful way to develop and deliver financial education initiatives.
Turning to the Auditor General's report, FCAC welcomes the recommendation that involves our efforts to strengthen the financial literacy of post-secondary students in collaboration with ESDC.
FCAC and the Canada student loans program team have a long-standing and positive relationship. Our joint focus is to help student loan borrowers improve their financial literacy and better manage their finances.
As discussed in the Auditor General's report, our two organizations have been working together to include the financial literacy tools and information in ESDC's National Student Loans Service Centre portal.
We are pleased to report that over the past year, FCAC's educational materials have been added to the student loan portal as well as to the personal dashboards of student borrowers. They include links to FCAC's budget planner and information on how loans and credit cards work and on consumer rights related to credit products. There are also tips on paying back student loans and setting up an emergency fund.
Going forward we will continue to build on our close partnership with ESDC and support its efforts to make enhancements and to integrate new content into the portal.
In closing, I'd like to bring your attention to the fact that we recently announced the launch of public consultations to renew our national strategy for financial literacy. The first national strategy was adopted in 2015 and successfully laid out a road map to where we are today. These consultations for a new strategy will help us plan for the future. We invite anyone who is interested to share their ideas.
In closing, FCAC is committed to continue advancing financial literacy in Canada, with the support of federal government partners like ESDC and other stakeholders.
This completes my opening statement. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.