Karen Stothers

Karen is the senior director of the Accounting Policy Division at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

As the head of OSFI’s Accounting Division, Karen is responsible for the management of a senior team of professional accountants whose mandate is to contribute to both rule-making processes and to support supervisory risk assessment and intervention processes for banks and insurers. In this capacity, Karen is responsible for standards development for accounting, auditing and disclosure for regulated financial institutions. She supports OSFI’s domestic and international work at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and the Financial Stability Board for work streams dealing with accounting, auditing and disclosure.

Karen is a member of the Accounting Experts Group of the Basel Committee and in this capacity she led the guidance on expected credit losses. Karen also represents Basel on the Public Interest Oversight Board and is the OSFI representative on the Canadian Audit and Assurance Oversight Council. She has been leading OSFI participation in developing an international insurance accounting standard since 2007 and has been involved both at the Canadian Accounting Standards Board and International Accounting Standards Board levels on the issues in the development of IFRS 17.

Karen has had a diverse experience in accounting and risk management for banks and insurers and has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and is a CPA, CA.