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Email this12:58 pm
December 12, 2009
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Hot on the heels of the Doug Ford government in Ontario's decision to amalgamate FSCO and DICO into a single Financial Services Regulatory Authority ("Ontario FSRA"), it appears that B.C.'s Minister of Finance has announced, in the past week, that B.C.'s Financial Institutions Commission ("FICOM") will be replaced with a new, independent statutory authority in the...get ready for it...Financial Services Authority ("B.C. FSA"). Note the only difference between B.C.'s and Ontario's is Ontario's formal inclusion of the word regulatory in its name.
Also, simultaneous to that, this news release announcing the external recruitment search for a CEO of the soon-to-be created B.C. FSA states that the B.C. FSA CEO will hold parallel titles as Superintendent of Financial Institutions, CEO of the Credit Union Deposit Insurance Corp. of B.C., Superintendent of Pensions, and Registrar of Mortgage Brokers, so it appears that, at least initially, the CUDIC of B.C. will be remaining a separate, presumably wholly-owned, subsidiary of the soon-to-be created B.C. FSA.
Cheers,
Doug
4:49 am
October 21, 2013
Online
Interesting that NDP and Conservative govts would come to similar conclusion.
I was told recently by someone who ought to know that Ontario's DICO operates more as part of the govt, but that MB's CU insurance is more at arm's length. I don't think I've ever understood them well enough to confirm this.
11:01 am
December 12, 2009
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Loonie said
Interesting that NDP and Conservative govts would come to similar conclusion.I was told recently by someone who ought to know that Ontario's DICO operates more as part of the govt, but that MB's CU insurance is more at arm's length. I don't think I've ever understood them well enough to confirm this.
I think that might be accurate...I do know that DGCM does not officially carry a guarantee by the Manitoba government in terms of provincial government backing. Still, unofficially, I suspect that if there were a massive run on the Manitoba credit unions and people were about to lose their shirts, the Manitoba government would step in and backstop DGCM in a manner similar to the fact that the federal government would likely do the same on uninsured CDIC deposits. But, it is technically, not a guarantee, and we have to be mindful to remember that. 
Cheers,
Doug
12:05 pm
August 4, 2010
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Manitoba's DGCM is established in legislation and the board of directors appointed by the government. Ontario's DICO is an "agency of the Government of Ontario", also established in legislation; it may be that the "agency" is slightly closer to the government than Manitoba's corporation, but DICO has a board of directors and so forth as well.
DICO's current agency status isn't like CDIC's "agent of the crown" status which makes the feds liable for CDIC. I got a comment from the Ontario auditor-general's office a few years ago saying "DICO is in fact classified as a “Trust” and therefore its results are not consolidated in the Province’s financial statements (Public Accounts). Typically, an agency is classified as a Trust when the government is under no obligation to finance their operations, but rather that responsibility rests with the agency’s stakeholders". As far as I know, none of the provinces are legally required to back up the deposit funds, but as Doug says it is unlikely any potential backstop would be anywhere near as expensive or politically impossible as a province's CU system failing.
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