Finance committee  It would certainly add costs to the mortgage market, which would, of course, get downloaded eventually to customers. I think the credit unions, being very small institutions, have less ability to absorb any of the costs and less ability to raise funds on the open markets. Therefo

Finance committee  There are actually about 380 communities in Canada where credit unions are the only bricks and mortar banks, and we are very active in rural communities across the country. So, of course, the impact would be higher in those communities, and those are the communities that I think

Finance committee  Yes, it would.

Finance committee  —threshold.

Finance committee  Well, I wouldn't speculate on why it's being imposed from a regulatory perspective rather than a risk-based perspective. I think it's very logical to look at it in terms of applying a regulation based on risk, and if an average of three members in smaller credit unions have accou

Finance committee  Yes. FATCA applies to the U.S. This new measure applies to OECD countries, so to a much larger number of countries.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  We have pointed this out to the government. I think the government's view is that it has signed an agreement at the level of the OECD, and it's abiding by that agreement. I think there is the opportunity to look at how it's implemented in Canada and to look at a risk-based approa

Finance committee  This is new news. It was announced last week, as you know. We're in the process of modelling some accurate data, which we will share with the committee and with you when we get it done. But suffice it to say that credit unions securitize mortgages as a way to raise capital. The

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee members. I'm here with my colleague, Rob Martin, representing Canada's credit unions. Credit unions, as you know, are member-owned, full-service banking institutions that serve over 5.6 million Canadians. We contribute $6.5 billi

Finance committee  I would say that credit unions are working hard to try to help in communities where they have those other organizations. There's some work that's been done in Vancouver. Vancity has a similar kind of short-term loan structure that has worked out fairly well. Ontario announced

Finance committee  It's different.

Finance committee  Right. Yes, it's different.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  What expired was a tax credit. This is a credit on growing capital. It's on the growth of capital. It's a different model of credit.