Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  On the lending side, it is our hope that every rate we charge is fully defensible as a commercial rate. There's no policy to try to be more or anything like that. We're very often pari passu with financial partners, so then it's identical. That's simple. On the insurance side, we are very careful to make sure we are not seen as a competitor to the private market.

Finance committee  No, you were right. We have more customers with similar dollar volumes to last year. What that tells you is, as one of the other honourable members was asking, exports are much lower at this time than they were last year, so that level means that more people are coming to us--and they're generally smaller companies--looking for protection from those risks that have arisen.

Finance committee  Thank you. You said lending, but I think you mean insurance. Is that correct?

Finance committee  Okay. We do both, of course, and in both cases we're seeking a price that is defensible under international law, so that it's a commercial price. As I was saying before, it's very important when someone says “This was so much more, that can't be right”—

Finance committee  Yes, that is indeed the case. Our usual mandate is to increase export capacity. We can grant loans to businesses to finance and share the risk with their bank, and so forth.

Finance committee  As I mentioned, most of our activities in this sector consist of granting credit insurance. This is the most common formula for these businesses. Direct loans are much less common, as our direct guarantees, but they are available in theory. The issue is broader than that. If a company applies for a loan and its bank does not want to lend it money, then that company's situation must be analyzed.

Finance committee  Thank you. First, let me clarify that the reference to “five times” in my introductory remarks was to indicate that insurance is several times more important as a tool for EDC than pure lending. It's true, however, that it is up substantially compared with a year ago, for the reason I gave earlier: that at this stage in the business cycle, companies become more concerned about the risk of waiting two or three months for payment from a foreign buyer.

Finance committee  The entire world is in recession; there are really no exceptions to that. Growth has slowed everywhere, and so those risks have risen everywhere. Generally speaking, people are more concerned to insure a receivable if it's in a developing country, as opposed to the United States; that's a general rule of thumb.

Finance committee  It's very important to make sure we're comparing apples to apples, because they may have fewer buyers on their list and lower limits. Having a buyer on your list that you allow, for example, only a $2 million limit may not help you as an exporter, when you have many more millions to--

Finance committee  In the domestic marketplace we would also, for example, lend working capital to an exporting company. And under our ordinary regulations or our previous regulations, we would be looking at companies that had at least 80% of their revenues coming from exports. Those regulations have been suspended, as you know, for this two-year period.

Finance committee  No, we don't compete. Usually we collaborate. We may share where the risks are a little higher and maybe we take a piece each, but most of the time it's clear who has an established relationship and who doesn't and we work it out.

Finance committee  Exporters have access to private sector insurance from a variety of providers. Most of them are European, actually, in base: Atradius, Euler Hermes, Coface. Those companies are present globally and are available to Canadian companies. We don't actually compete with those companies.

Finance committee  You're mixing both lenders and insurance companies in the same question. Generally speaking, those are international companies with a strong Canadian presence.

Finance committee  There are a lot of questions in there. Let's put it in a hypothetical situation. The pricing does vary by risk. It depends on what country the foreign buyer is in, how risky things are. It depends on the actual financials of the foreign buyer. We assess the individual foreign buyer to see what risk is being contemplated.