to turn to another aspect of the way we conduct monetary policy in this country. as i said at the outset, the bank is constantly searching for ways to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy. over the past couple of years, we have been looking at how other major central banks go about announcing changes in official interest rates, and we have been assessing whether our current arrangements could be improved. we have noted that most foreign central banks announce their decisions on interest rates only on certain dates that are set well in advance. in the united states, this has been the practice for some time. and now it is also the case in the other major economies ( japan, the euro zone and the united kingdom ) as well as in a number of smaller industrial countries ( eg sweden, australia and new zealand ). after carefully considering all the relevant issues, we have concluded that pre - set dates for announcing interest rate actions would improve the implementation and effectiveness of canadian monetary policy. we have decided that eight specified dates per year would be appropriate in the canadian context. the scheduling of these eight dates would be based on the timing of the flows of economic information that the bank relies on to gauge the economic situation in canada, to make projections, and to assess the need for monetary policy action. each of these eight dates would be separated from us policy action dates by a week or more. in preparing to move to this new system, we will be consulting interested parties on the most appropriate day of the week and time of day for announcing interest rate changes. the way we see it, this new approach has several advantages over the existing arrangements, advantages that should contribute to a more effective monetary policy. i would like to briefly highlight some of these benefits. to begin with, the new arrangements should reduce uncertainty in financial markets about the timing of policy actions. under the current system, the bank can move interest rates on any business day ( monday to friday ), at 9 am because market participants are not sure exactly which day a change in interest rates may be announced, trading can slow in the early morning, for several days, when there is an expectation that the bank may move. removing this uncertainty should improve market efficiency and liquidity. we also believe that the new system will help to focus public attention more closely on economic trends here in canada, and on the appropriate monetary policy response based on those critical trends. let me explain. on each of the eight pre - set dates for interest rate action, the bank would issue a press

at fair value with market value gains and losses recognized in the capital account through other comprehensive income ; • assets held to maturity and managed for yield and return of principal over time shown at amortized cost with a reserve reflecting life - of - loan or through - the - cycle potential credit losses ; and • for business combinations, identical accounting treatment for acquired assets and similarly managed assets on the acquirer's balance sheet. regulatory changes in terms of regulatory changes, our current regulatory capital framework needs to be revised to ensure that banking organizations have a level of capital sufficient to facilitate lending, while also ensuring safe and sound operation throughout the economic cycle. work is underway to develop an approach that would allow banks to retain more capital in good economic times and to allow this excess or buffer to be reduced as the economic cycle worsens. the goal is to have a level of capital that is sufficient to support lending, while maintaining safety and soundness. the challenge is to develop an appropriate target for this excess amount and to identify the right economic trigger for determining when this excess should be reduced. this is a delicate balance. in addition, the elements that we consider to be tier 1 capital in our current framework need to be revised. since our framework starts with components of equity capital as measured under generally accepted accounting principles ( gaap ), we are carefully evaluating every element of regulatory capital that is treated differently in regulatory capital than in gaap. for example, gaap equity includes accumulated other comprehensive income ( aoci ) and the current regulatory framework neutralizes the impact of certain items in aoci such as unrealized holding gains and losses on available - for - sale debt securities. and finally we are coordinating capital standard setting with our counterparts in other countries. to the extent that gaap and accounting standards in those countries are different, our capital definitions may also differ. impact on securitization finally, i'd like to offer a quick word of caution on accounting for off - balance - sheet items and the future of securitization markets. our financial system has become dependent upon securitization as an important intermediation tool. during the crisis, securitization markets ground to a halt. the federal reserve's term asset - backed securities loan facility ( talf ) has helped restart activity in some markets, such as securities backed by auto loans or credit card receivables. but the cmbs market is still very weak and the market for newly issued, private - label rmbs