Finance committee  Unfortunately, I really cannot comment on the business decisions of this bank verses the Bank of Nova Scotia. Business decisions are made for different reasons. Investment in, I guess, offshore subsidiaries are based on not necessarily tax reasons but for regulatory and business

Finance committee  They go there primarily to service their international clients.

Finance committee  I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't have that information.

Finance committee  No, we do not.

Finance committee  I don't believe so, no.

Finance committee  That's what our member banks told us. I guess a lot of people don't think of offshore as the U.S., but the number of snowbirds and individuals who travel to the U.S. I think validates that a majority of them would be in the U.S.

Finance committee  We do not.

Finance committee  I think, first and foremost, above anything else, we need to comply with the laws of the jurisdiction, whether they be privacy or regulatory laws. That is why we encourage the information exchange and feel that it is a method that would allow a government-to-government exchange o

Finance committee  Yes, if there was an agreement.

Finance committee  We do not have that information. However, when we talk about offshore accounts, probably the majority of these accounts are in the U.S.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Unfortunately, we do not have that information with us. It's something that I can try to obtain and get back to the committee on, unless Darren has any additional information that I don't have on that.

Finance committee  From what we hear from our member banks, that is the practice. Before even that piece in terms of referring them to the branch, they still follow the standard protocol of making sure they know who the client's customer is and also of determining the reason for their wanting to op

Finance committee  It is up to each bank. “Know your customer” rules are standard throughout the banks because of securities regulations and bank regulations. As for the actual procedures, they are determined by each of the banks.

Finance committee  Do you want to go into more detail?