Finance committee  First, the board is accountable for all the decisions made at committees. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions supervises financial institutions and ensures that all the important decisions are made at the board and that the board is accountable for all those decisions.

Finance committee  I'll be able to provide it today.

Finance committee  The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is the one that actually can answer those questions, because they're the ones who regulate. Also, there are rules in the legislation, and the superintendent has guidelines on how the board should make decisions. Risk decisions, for example, have to be debated by the board, but I don't have the full details in front of me.

Finance committee  It's correct that the directors are liable for all of the decisions. Usually, all of the important decisions have to be reported at the board.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I do not have the exact number with me, but I know that there are several pooled funds. They exist in Asia and Australia. I think that New Zealand has one. They exist here and there around the world. But I cannot give you the exact number.

Finance committee  If an applicant wishes to invest in a financial institution, they should begin with the Office of the Superintendant of Financial Institutions. The superintendant then reviews the application to ensure it complies with the law and that the minister will have the information required to give a decision.

Finance committee  The reason for this change was to enable financial institutions to have access to a wider range of investors. In other countries, investors are allowed to invest in financial institutions. We wanted to make sure that our financial institutions were going to be competitive in the search for capital and that they were going to have access to the same pool of potential investors, taking into account that the minister wished to have the right to review such investors.

Finance committee  Yes. At present there are three criteria that the law... With your permission, I am going to consult my sheet.

Finance committee  No. I am talking to you about what is now found in Bill C-38.

Finance committee  There are not any additional criteria.

Finance committee  Yes, I can do that, for sure. We created a new class of investors in the first Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act. What we did was we ensured that the ownership framework for the current investors is harmonized with the new framework so that they all work together more smoothly.

Finance committee  We didn't change the framework for the ones that were currently allowed before Bill C-38. For those ones there are exactly the same rules. What we did is we looked at this new class of investors. We looked at whether we needed to modify certain clauses for them to make it a little more....

Finance committee  Currently for investors, the minister approves share ownership above 10%.

Finance committee  Yes, for those investors we want to approve every share. We have criteria. Basically it is that government and agents are prohibited from owning shares in financial institutions, with limited exceptions, so we open the door a little bit for these types of investors, which are public sector investment pools.