Peter Routledge was asked about regulatory oversight in TV interview
The Superintendent of Financial Institutions has been challenged about OSFI’s role in detecting failings at TD Bank that led to $3 billion in fines for its US operations.
Appearing on BNN Bloomberg, Peter Routledge was asked if the Canadian financial institutions regulator should have detected issues and shut them down, but legal restrictions on what OSFI can share about regulated entities prohibited him from saying exactly what was down well or otherwise.
Pressed further, the Superintendent said that while the TD issues were in the US and not Canada, he believes OSFI fulfilled its obligations to ensure that any regulated FI based in Canada is managing prudential risks that threaten the health of the organization. He added that TD is “prudentially sound on objective measures.”
But he recognized that there are broad concerns within the Canadian financial landscape about matters such as AML and said that OSFI is actively addressing these.
Asked if he considered resigning over the TD matter, given its seriousness, Mr Routledge said he did not consider it and that he is “the best person in the country to manage the issue.” He refused to discuss any wider personnel matters within OSFI.
Recent speculation about the role of bank boards of directors and the responsibility they have in ensuring good governance was also briefly touched on, but again the Superintendent said he was unable to answer without breaking the law.
Defending OSFI’s record on banking industry supervision, he pointed to the ratio of failed US banks to failed Canadian banks since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
“There have been over 500 bank failures in the United States, zero in Canada,” he said.
