Finance committee  I'd like to look at what's requested. I don't remember it verbatim. To the extent that it's within our authorities under our act to provide the information, of course we'll do so with great haste.

Finance committee  Within the liquidity coverage ratio, high-quality, and by that specifically I mean sovereign, assets do have a very high—

Finance committee  —liquidity rating, because you can take a very high-quality AAA asset and liquify it fairly quickly in markets. That is reflected in our rules, as it should be.

Finance committee  The governor for credit creation in the system is “capital requirements”, not necessarily the ability to liquify.

Finance committee  The advantage of the system is—

Finance committee  Again, the governor is the capital requirements. You have assets and you have capital. The assets can be allocated as the executives of the bank see fit. The capital governs how large that asset group can grow.

Finance committee  The activity of buying mortgage insurance, be it from CMHC or private mortgage insurers, adds to the liquidity of mortgage assets on a bank balance sheet. Net-net, and in a crisis, that is another stabilizer and will benefit the system—and did in the last financial crisis in 2008

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, we apply the stress test uniformly across institutions, and that would lead to a uniform application across Canadians in all regions. With respect to debt service ratios by region or province—and I'm making the assumption that's what they are asking for—I will look i

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, might the honourable member clarify what he means by shadow banking sector?

Finance committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, the size of residential mortgage credit outstanding is $1.9 trillion currently. About $1.5 trillion is provided by OSFI-supervised institutions. The remaining $400 billion comes from non-banks or credit unions. If by “shadow bank” you mean what the Bank

Finance committee  We have rather rigorous oversight for all mortgages, including variable mortgages, through our residential mortgage underwriting guideline. This would include measures in place to guard against the very scenario the honourable member outlined—rising variable rates. We want to ens

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, that is a great question. I don't have that information at my fingertips. I will look into it. It will be hard to find; I know that at the institution level it is confidential and strategic. I simply don't have the answer at my fingertips. I will look into it.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, whether an investor chooses a variable rate mortgage or a homeowner with one home chooses a variable rate mortgage, they're all subject to the same minimum qualifying stress test, which is the higher of 5.25% or the contract rate plus 200 basis points. The interest rat

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, that's a rule specifically. At OSFI we are principles-based. That's an underwriting practice, and we would encourage the institutions we supervise to think about that. We don't currently have that specific and discreet rule, although we do have disciplines that say tha

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, the honourable member very aptly describes the trade-off we face. Over the last four years, we put the stress test in place and increased it so that the test borrowers face is higher than it was a few years ago. The implication is that it's harder for Canadians or that