Regulating Canada’s Big Banks

Chris Elgar is the Deputy Superintendent, Prudential Supervision at BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA). Chris is responsible for managing FICOM's (Financial Institutions Commission) prudential supervision of provincially regulated financial institutions. In short, Chris acts as a regulator for financial institutions within BC.

Chris has over 35 years of financial services experience as a senior executive at major Canadian banks including Manulife Bank where he was Chief Risk Officer. Chris also served at the federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions within the Supervision Group where he was Managing Director responsible for Capital Markets risk assessments for federally regulated financial institutions.

In this episode we talked about:

• How financial institutions are regulated in our province

• Risk assessment for financial institutions of various size

• Creating regulations that also facilitate a level-playing field for all financial institutions

• Banks vs credit unions; their pro's and con's, strengths and weaknesses

• Security levels for depositors at credit unions

• Biggest challenge facing financial institutions smaller than Canadian big 5 banks