Banking in Canada is widely considered one of the safest banking systems in the world, ranking as the world's soundest banking system for the past six years according to reports by the World Economic Forum. Released in October 2010, Global Finance magazine put Royal Bank of Canada at number 10 among the world's safest banks and Toronto-Dominion Bank at number 15. Canada's banks, also called chartered banks, have over 8,000 branches and almost 18,000 automated banking machines (ABMs) across the country. In addition, "Canada has the highest number of ABMs per capita in the world and benefits from the highest penetration levels of electronic channels such as debit cards, Internet banking and telephone banking".
History
Origins
Banking in Canada began to migrate in earnest from colonial overseas banking operations to a local banking system with the founding of the Bank of Montreal in 1817. Other banks soon followed and began business, and after a lengthy approval process began unregulated banking business. These institutions issued the only local currency notes until amendments in the British North America Act allowed federal and provincial governments to begin to introduce their own notes starting in 1866. Official Canadian currency took the form of the Canadian dollar in 1871, overriding the currency of individual banks. The establishment of the Bank of Canada in 1935 was also an important milestone in banking and monetary governance.
Despite various loss events (such as the Latin American debt crisis, the collapse of Olympia and York, Enron-related liabilities, and the U.S. Subprime mortgage crisis), the big five banks have thus far proven to be safe and stable companies. For example, in securities prospectuses the Royal Bank of Canada says it has paid a common share dividend in every year since 1870, the year after it received its banking charter.
According to the Department of Finance, two small regional banks failed in the mid-1980s, the only such failures since 1923, which is the year Home Bank failed. There were no bank failures during the Great Depression compared to 9000+ in the US.
Recent history
In the 1980s and 1990s, the largest banks acquired almost all significant trust and brokerage companies in Canada. They also started their own mutual fund and insurance businesses. As a result, Canadian banks broadened out to become supermarkets of financial services.
After large bank mergers were ruled out by the federal government, some Canadian banks turned to international expansion, particularly in various U.S. markets such as banking and brokerage.
Two other notable developments in Canadian banking were the launch of ING Bank of Canada (which relies mostly on a branchless banking model), and the slow emergence of non-bank mortgage origination companies.
A survey conducted by the World Economic Forum called the Global Competitiveness Report of twelve-thousand corporate executives, in 2008, concluded that Canada has the best banking system in the world, receiving a score of 6.8 out of possible seven.
Canadian banks
In everyday commerce, the banks in Canada are generally referred to in two categories: 1) the five large national banks and 2) smaller second tier banks (notwithstanding that a large national bank and a smaller second tier bank may share the same legal status and regulatory classification.
The five largest banks in Canada are:
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Toronto Dominion Bank
- Bank of Nova Scotia
- Bank of Montreal
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Notable second tier banks include ATB Financial, Canadian Western Bank, National Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank, the Desjardins Group (technically not a bank but an alliance of credit unions), HSBC Bank Canada, and Tangerine Bank (Formerly ING Bank of Canada). These second tier organizations are largely Canadian domestic banking organizations. Insurance companies in Canada have also created deposit-taking bank subsidiaries. For a complete list of institutions see: List of banks in Canada
"Big Five" banks
Unlike the smaller Canadian banks, the Big Five are not just Canadian banks, but are instead better described as international financial conglomerates, each with a large Canadian banking division. In fiscal 2007, RBC's Canadian segment called "Personal Financial Services" (the segment most related to what was traditionally thought of as retail banking) had revenue of only CAD$5,082 million (or 22.6%) of a total revenue of CAD$22,462 million. Canadian retail operations of the Big Five comprise other activities that do not need to be operated from a regulated bank. These other activities include mutual funds, insurance, credit cards, and brokerage activities. In addition, they have large international subsidiaries. The Canadian banking operations of the Big Five are largely conducted out of each parent company, unlike U.S. banks that use a holding company structure to hold their primary retail banking subsidiaries.
Brands used by the big five by major financial service*
*Marketing brands are shown rather than division names. For example, for internal and investor relation purposes, CIBC uses CIBC Retail Markets as a division name, but this does not normally appear in advertisements and does not feature prominently on account statements. Brand names are sometimes used across legal entities within a financial group. Intermediate umbrella brands (such as RBC Investments that includes the brands RBC Funds, RBC Action Direct, and RBC Dominion Securities) are not shown.
Regulation
Canada's federal government has sole jurisdiction for banks according to the Canadian Constitution, specifically Section 91(15) of The Constitution Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Victoria, c.3 (UK)), formerly known as the British North America Act, 1867. Meanwhile, credit unions/caisses populaires, securities dealers and mutual funds are largely regulated by provincial governments.
The main federal statute for the incorporation and regulation of banks, or chartered banks, is the Bank Act (S.C. 1991, c.46), where Schedules I, II and III of this Act list all banks permitted to operate in Canada under these three distinct categories:
- Schedule I: Banks allowed to accept deposits and which are NOT subsidiaries of a foreign bank. Examples include "The Big Five" banks (as mentioned above) and smaller second tier banks such as ING Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank of Canada, President's Choice Financial and Canadian Western Bank. Because the Schedule I banks are not subsidiaries of any foreign bank, they are the true domestic banks and are the only banks allowed to receive, hold and enforce a special security interest described and provided for under the Bank Act and known to Canadian lawyers and bankers as the "Bank Act security".
- Schedule II: Banks allowed to accept deposits and which are subsidiaries of a foreign bank. Examples include AMEX Bank of Canada, Citibank Canada, HSBC Bank Canada, and Walmart Canada Bank. Like the Schedule I banks, the Schedule II banks are incorporated under the Bank Act.
- Schedule III: Foreign banks permitted to carry on business in Canada. Examples include Bank of America, Capital One, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank AG. Unlike the Schedule I and Schedule II banks, the Schedule III banks are NOT incorporated under the Bank Act and they operate in Canada, usually within the country's largest cities (being Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver), under certain restrictions mentioned in the Act.
The bank regulator is the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (best known as OSFI), whose authority stems from the Bank Act. The financial groups are also governed by regulatory bodies (bank regulators, securities regulators, insurance regulators, etc.) in each country in which they operate.
Financial crisis of 2008
During the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, the Bank of Canada, along with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the US Federal Reserve provided up to $114 billion of liquidity support to Canadian banks. Of this amount, $69 billion was part of the CMHC mortgage insurance program, a facility set up in 1954 to handle such situations.
See also
- FATCA agreement between Canada and the United States
- List of banks and credit unions in Canada
- Canadian and American economies compared
- Manulife Financial
- Power Corporation of Canada
- Sun Life Financial
Notes
References
- Financial Institutions and Markets, Department of Finance, URL accessed 6 August 2006
External links
- Department of Justice website, Department of Justice, URL accessed 26 January 2014
- OSFI website, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, URL accessed 2 November 2006
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