The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada (OSFI), last week.

The MoU was signed, first, on behalf of the DFSA by Chief Executive, Mr Paul Koster, and subsequently in Ottawa by Mr Mark White, the Assistant Superintendent, Regulation Sector, of OSFI. OSFI is responsible for regulating and supervising all federally chartered, licensed or registered banks, insurance, trust and loan companies, co-operative credit associations and fraternal benefit societies in Canada.

The Chief Executive of the DFSA, Mr Paul Koster said: “The attraction of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) as the domicile of choice for Canadian financial institutions in the Middle East will be further enhanced by this regulatory relationship. This initiative reflects each agency’s commitment to co-operation in relation to prudential oversight and inspections. It adopts the model for information sharing developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and follows similar arrangements the DFSA has with other significant banking supervisors in the UK, Germany, France, the US, Japan, Singapore and China.”

“The global financial crisis has reinforced the importance of effective dialogue and collaboration between banking supervisors. Agreements of this kind will help that process.”

“Since 2005 the DFSA has placed a high priority on building its information network. As a result of this signing, we now have a bi-lateral MoU network with fifty regulators regionally and across the globe.”