The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, March 29, edition that the failure of the Home Bank in 1923 resulted in the creation of the Office of the Superintendent of Banking. The Post's guest columnist Joe Martin writes that proposals for deposit insurance were rejected, and were not introduced until 1967. In 1985 two Alberta banks -- Northland and Canadian Commercial -- went into bankruptcy, the first banks to do so in over 60 years. To investigate, the government appointed Supreme Court Judge Willard Estey, who recommended the creation of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which has stood Canada in good stead ever since. While there were major problems with sub-prime mortgages in the United States in 2008 similar problems in this country were minor. At the time, the IMF concluded that Canada's financial system was "mature, sophisticated, and well-managed" and that stress tests revealed the banks could "withstand sizeable shocks." Canada's macroeconomic policies may not be as sound as they were 15 years ago, but the Canadian banking system remains mature, sophisticated, and well managed -- despite many Canadians' love-hate relationship with it.