The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec says it has rapidly re-established its normal level of liquid assets despite the non-bank asset-backed commercial paper(ABCP)crisis.

The Caisse is able to meet all its depositors’ liquidity requests and adequately meet its own needs. The Caisse no longer considers ABCP to be part of its short-term liquid assets,” it says in a statement. “The quality of its assets and balance sheet enable the Caisse to cope with a crisis such as the one currently affecting the Canadian and international financial markets.”

Earlier today, Montreal’s La Presse reported that the fund held $13.6 billion in ABCP.

The Caisse says it does not intend to comment on those figures and points out that under it constituting statute, it fully discloses its holdings once a year using a rigorous procedure governed by Canadian and international standards.

The Caisse played a leadership role in the crisis in the ABCP market by convening a group of financial institutions that concluded what is now referred to as the Montreal Proposal.

It then made efforts with other partners to ensure all investors can benefit from the proposed solution, which led to the creation of a committee chaired by Purdy Crawford.

To read Crawford to Head ABCP Committee, click here.

To comment on this story, email craig.sebastiano@rci.rogers.com.