OSFI issues draft revisions of guideline for outsourcing business functions

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) is requesting comment from industry stakeholders on its draft revision of Guideline B-10, Outsourcing of Business Functions.
On April 20, 2007, as a result of Bill C-37 coming into force, the need for a federally regulated entity (FRE) to obtain OSFI’s approval to maintain and process information pertaining to the maintenance of certain corporate, accounting and customer records outside of Canada was removed.
The revisions to Guideline B-10 are designed to clarify OSFI’s expectations. They include:
•    a transition measure to bring outsourcing arrangements that are obtained as part of an acquisition by the FRE into compliance with the guideline;
•    a clarification of the expectation that, as part of the FRE’s materiality test, a FRE would need to consider the potential influence on the FRE of multiple outsourcing arrangements with a single service provider;
•    the removal of s. 8 of the guideline to reflect the repeal of the requirement for OSFI’s approval to maintain and process information outside of Canada as outlined above; and
•    a standardized template for a centralized list that FREs could use to summarize all material outsourcing arrangements.
Institutions are invited to provide comments by Jan. 16, 2009 through their industry associations. The draft guideline can be found at http://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca.