On February 13, 2020, the Office of the Superintendent of
Financial Institutions (OSFI) hosted a Regulatory Affairs Division
seminar (the Seminar) during which it presented regulatory,
legislative and policy updates to industry members in the insurance
and banking sectors. We have summarized certain regulatory updates
and changes below.
1. Securities Administration
On November 26, 2019, OSFI announced that the Securities
Administration Unit (SAU), which administers vested assets and
capital adequacy deposit accounts of federally regulated foreign
banks and insurance branches, would be renamed the Securities
Administration and Approvals Reporting Unit (SAAR), and that
OSFI's Regulatory Affairs Division would begin processing SAU
requests. As part of this transition, OSFI indicated its intention
to move towards a less stringent form of trust agreement.
Currently, trust agreements for branches are required to follow a
prescribed form of agreement that is somewhat