Evidence of meeting #151 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
Principal, SkyBridge Strategies
I'm not a cyber expert or a tech expert. You'd probably have to have somebody a lot more intelligent on that matter.
5:30 p.m.
Kanata—Carleton, Lib.
Other countries have adopted this open banking. They must have protections in place.
5:30 p.m.
Principal, SkyBridge Strategies
Most of the European countries that have adopted this have a unitary state of government, so there is no arbitrage between provincial and federal. The rules that apply across the country for banks, for APIs and for fintechs would apply to the entire country. They don't have federations, basically.
5:30 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
Most fintechs are provincially incorporated and they're not regulated. It will be a new world in terms of whether they need to be regulated and by whom.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Just before I go to Mr. Eglinski, which study are you referring to? Is it a finance committee study, or is it the department's study on this issue?
5:30 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
The department has consultations.
5:30 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
It is the department that has asked for the consultations. They have put together a committee that looks—
5:30 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
No, not yet.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Thank you, Chair. Yes, I'm brand new.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here.
One of the interesting things.... You're talking about the mutuals, and I think they are an important part of the whole equation, but there is a bigger picture of insurance companies also. I know that what you're talking about is more the liabilities insurance coverage with the mutuals, but I look at some of the big insurance companies, such as Sun Life or Manulife, and they get into quasi-financial services, or certainly mortgages and all those things.
The sharing of this information and the tying of services from a financial institution, such as a bank, to those types of insurance companies would open up a great deal of consumer information to those insurance agencies. Would that be a fair assessment?
5:35 p.m.
Principal, SkyBridge Strategies
I'll try to answer the question.
The prohibition is on banks doing insurance, not on insurance companies doing banking products, so it's a one-way street. The reason for that prohibition being a one-way street is that banks are in the credit-granting business. Credit is a very powerful tool. Credit can be used to coerce a consumer to buy other products based on that very powerful tool of using credit, so the prohibition is a one-way street.
You mentioned Manulife. Manulife does have a bank, and that bank follows the same rules as the big five banks.
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Do they have a bank, or are they associated with a bank to do their banking in?
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Principal, SkyBridge Strategies
They have a bank. I believe it's called Manulife Bank or Manulife One. I'm not too sure of the name.
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Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
There are some that are out there now that call themselves banks, but I think they are associated through one of the chartered banks.
Anyway, all that aside, the other part is that when we look at the banks, I think almost all of them are also located in other countries. Most of them are in the United States; some are in South America, and some are in Europe. When information gets into a Canadian bank that has affiliates in other countries that may or may not have the same rules for insurance, do you see that as an issue?
5:35 p.m.
Principal, SkyBridge Strategies
It's up to the jurisdiction that they operate in. Canadian banks operate in Canada under Canadian law. A Canadian bank operating in the United States would operate under U.S. law or state law.
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
I don't disagree with you there, but the access to the information might very well also be available to the bank's offshore facilities, if that's what you would call it.
TD Canada Trust is probably the best-known in Canada and the U.S. Their branches are—