Saying it’s become a ”distraction,” Bill Morneau is taking two steps to attempt to calm the controversy over his personal finances.

The federal finance minister called the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner to say he’s placing his assets in a blind trust and divesting shares in his family human resources and pension management company, Morneau Shepell.

Morneau has previously said he made sure to disclose all of his assets to the commissioner when he came inot office and insists he followed Mary Dawson’s advice carefully.

The commissioner said this week she did not advise Morneau not to put the assets in a blind trust, but did tell him it was not specifically required under current rules.