In Canada, a system-wide, or macroprudential, approach is the shared responsibility of the Department of Finance and all of the federal financial regulatory authorities, including of course the Bank of Canada, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. Ultimately, it is the Minister of Finance who is responsible for the sound stewardship of the financial system.
As a starting point for the analysis of the crisis, it is helpful to recall the institutional set-up of the European Monetary Union. When EMU was established, monetary policy was centralised while fiscal and economic policies remained in national hands. This set-up created vulnerabilities. It gave rise to a deficit bias, allowing the costs of fiscal imprudence to be partially shifted to other countries.