Thirdly, in the development of recommendations as to the ongoing regulatory structure, it is important that room be maintained for the sector to adapt competitively to changes in the surrounding environment. One illustration I have put forward on other occasions is the increasingly imaginative and extensive use being made of technology to develop new and innovative distribution channels for financial products. At the threshold of considering these questions, we must address a position that many commentators put forward. This is that the level of competition in the financial services sector is already extraordinarily high, and growing apace. The sector has become truly international in its operations, and recent governmental initiatives in Canada will open the door yet further to international competition.
Poised competition is always present.
Canada's capital markets represent only about 2 per cent of world markets. We are at the mercy of those markets, they say, and we should not pretend to the contrary. Further, these commentators say that, even if there are existing barriers to entry and other factors limiting contestability in Canadian financial services sector, those factors must soon disappear. They cannot withstand the forces of technology and internationalization. The Task Force's recommendations are unlikely to be implemented before 2002 and, they say, any inefficiencies in the current marketplace should be largely resolved before then.