Finance committee  The group in Canada that's coordinating—because there are a number of players here, including provinces, but also the federal government—is the over-the-counter working group under what's called the heads of agencies group, which is an informal committee chaired by the Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  The regulators that we would have consulted on the thrust of these amendments would have included the AMF, the OSC, British Columbia Securities Commission, and Alberta. We didn't directly consult any of the others. Those four are part of a working group on over-the-counter derivatives that includes the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada, and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, as well as the CSA, Canadian Securities Administrators, which has been working on implementing Canada's G-20 commitment around over-the-counter derivatives for the last couple of years.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  As part of the G-20 commitment, the main element is to clear standardized over-the-counter derivatives. That's an initiative Canada, the U.S. and all other G-20 members are pursuing. Another element of the commitment is to report to a trade repository all over-the-counter derivative transactions, including those that would be cleared, but also uncleared transactions.

Finance committee  In terms of the specific amendments that will protect central counterparties' derivatives transactions, we did consult provincial regulators, including the AMF, for example, in Quebec, before we brought them forward.

Finance committee  Quite the contrary, there was very much support for this initiative.

Finance committee  Yes, there are a number. One example, based in Quebec, is CDCC, which clears futures and options transactions traded on the Montréal Exchange and has started to clear certain over-the-counter derivatives products connected to equities.

Finance committee  That is essentially it. They're protected in the same way that cash clearing houses are now. It protects the clearing house, but it also protects the participants in the clearing system, which would be our major banks.

Finance committee  Thank you, Jean-François. I will be speaking to clauses 168 to 172 of the bill, which amend the Payment Clearing and Settlement Act. These are quite technical and hard to put into simple language, but they are important amendments to facilitate the central clearing of over-the-counter derivatives transactions.