Clarification by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec regarding an article by Francis Vailles of La Presse

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec would like to clarify an article published today in La Presse under the byline of Francis Vailles with a heading that translates as "Commercial paper losses of up to $5 billion."

The article states two things: first, that the Caisse and National Bank have formed a committee to estimate the value of their holdings of asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) and, second, that that committee has concluded that such assets will most likely have to be written down by almost 15%. Both statements are false. Such a committee does not exist and never has existed and therefore could not have arrived at such a conclusion.

The author of the article did not try to contact the Caisse to confirm the accuracy of the information he published.