OSFI head Julie Dickson will be succeeded by Jeremy Rudin.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The government has chosen Jeremy Rudin, a former economics professor who worked at the department of finance during the financial crisis, as the new head of Canada's banking and insurance regulator.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced late Friday that Mr. Rudin will begin a seven-year term as Superintendent of Financial Institutions effective June 29. He replaces Julie Dickson, who announced last year that she planned to retire at the end of her term.
Mr. Rudin, who is currently the assistant deputy minister of the financial sector policy branch of the department of finance, was one of two contenders whose names were widely rumoured in financial circles over the past couple of months. The other one was Andrew Kriegler, who joined OSFI in February 2013 after more than two decades on Bay Street.
In an interview late last year, former Finance Minister Jim Flaherty suggested that some of the people in his department who were angling for the job might not know what they were getting into.
"Some of my people, in Finance, would like to go do the job," Mr. Flaherty told the Globe. "I don't think they realize what it's like. This is not an easy job. It's a tough job."
Mr. Flaherty had originally hoped to choose a replacement for Ms. Dickson by the end of last year, but struggled to ensure that he had the right person. (Mr. Flaherty resigned in March, and died from a heart attack in April).
Canada's superintendent of financial institutions is paid a salary that falls in the range of $260,600 to $305,800. The goal of the job is to protect confidence in the country's financial institutions, by regulating and supervising them.
OSFI, which was created in 1987, gained a solid reputation globally during the financial crisis, because Canada's banks remained in much better shape than peers in the U.S. and Europe. It is now spending a lot of time monitoring the country's housing market, which the Bank of Canada has identified as the biggest domestic risk to the economy and the financial system. The government recently tasked OSFI with overseeing Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the Crown corporation that dominates the country's mortgage insurance market.
Mr. Rudin, who has a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, joined the finance department in 1993 and did a stint at the Bank of Canada. He previously taught economics at the University of British Columbia and Queen's University.