Ontario’s regulator is seeking public comment on draft operational risk-management guidance for credit unions as it aims to anticipate future threats.
In its proposed guidance released on Jan. 23, FSRA provided examples of potential operational risk events, such as a credit union mistakenly sending confidential member information to a fintech without first securing the member’s consent.
The draft guidance also aims to anticipate future opportunities for credit unions, respond effectively to stress events and learn from past failures and successes.
FSRA is encouraging stakeholders to provide comments by March 31.
Speaking last week at a FSRA event, Anthony Piscitelli, chairman of Kitchener-based Your Neighbourhood Credit Union Limited, said part of the strength of the credit union system is the ability to take risks and try different things such as open banking, even if those initiatives ultimately fail.
“It is possible in future that we may end up with some new start-up credit unions, and maybe we’ll have some of the innovative stuff like the peer-to-peer lending — maybe there’s a model around that that can exist in the future,” Piscitelli said. “But something like that may not be successful.”