Finance committee  You might have to put that question to the Bank of Canada. The Bank of Canada's role on money markets is to establish monetary policy. It is responsible for keeping the short-term liquidity market running smoothly. That's how it implements its monetary policy. That's what it has committed to do ever since the crisis began.

Finance committee  I think it has a number of dimensions. With respect to the products themselves, it means having more transparency as to what is in them; who is senior to whom, if something goes wrong; and more information about the structure itself. With respect to credit-rating agencies, for example, I think we need more transparency about the rating methodologies.

Finance committee  We've talked about credit agencies and their responsibilities. I think an important lesson from this is that investors need to exercise appropriate due diligence as well. Ratings are a very useful tool, but they should be used as a tool. You probably shouldn't be buying things if your only metric is ratings.

Finance committee  The set-up is different in every country. In the U.S....

Finance committee  Yes, that is the case for each of the other developed countries.

Finance committee  There are examples of financial upheaval everywhere. Canada is affected, but the situation here is quite good if we compare it to that of other countries. Our banks are well-capitalized and the gaps in the money market are not that big.

Finance committee  Well, I have spoken to the panel, but I haven't asked them about that. I have given them some of my views, but I haven't received back their views. They're working on that; they're in the process of consultation. I expect this is something they're hearing about as they go across the country.

Finance committee  There's a fairly active debate around the world about whether regulation should be more rules-based, as it is, for example, in the United States, or whether it should be more principles-based as, for example, the FSA, the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom, has pushed for.

Finance committee  Financial markets now offer many new products. Securitization is playing a much more significant role in financial markets. It is important not to lose sight of the advantages of diversification of risks and access to capital by companies. However, we must draw important lessons from this experience.

Finance committee  Could you be more specific?

Finance committee  Each country had to deal with its own set of problems. The United States are really at the root of the problem. This is especially because standards for credit assessment and underwriting of mortgages clearly became lax on the back of a very long and sustained expansion. This was exacerbated by the fact that interest rates were low.

Finance committee  As the superintendent indicated, her job is to protect depositors and figure out the appropriate capital charges. She is revising those.

Finance committee  Let me put this into the global context and then come back to the specific issue. I think it's fair to say that in the global context, if you go back a year or a year and a half ago, many people saw that the risk spreads were very low. They seemed unsustainably low and needed to widen.

Finance committee  The superintendent has been clear on OSFI's role. Her role is to protect depositors and to look at appropriate capital requirements. She's been through that, and all this is being looked at and revised. In the U.S., investors and rating agencies demanded global-style liquidity arrangements.

Finance committee  What is happening is that the market players have all moved to global-style liquidity. As the superintendent explained, there were different capital requirements for global-style versus general market, a disruption-style liquidity, and those are all being reviewed. She explained that the bank-sponsored conduits with general market disruption liquidity came in and, to the benefit of investors, backed their conduits and provided liquidity.