Talk:Banking in Canada
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[edit] Categorization of the various banks in Canada
Did any Canadian lawyer help create this article? I think that to divide all Canadian banks into two broad categories: 1) the "Big Five" banks, and 2) "second tier" banks (i.e. all other banks), is bit simplistic for a Wikipedia article. I will concede that this is how the average Canadian would probably classify the banks given how the Schedule II banks, like HSBC Bank Canada, ING Bank of Canada, and Citibank of Canada, attract alot of Canadian customers while de-emphasizing their foreign connections. However, this article should also emphasize the three legal classes/categories of banks set out in the federal Bank Act because this three-tier system seems like the closest thing to an "official" classification and one which is (sadly) known mostly by lawyers and law students. I wish more people, including bankers and the lowliest tellers, would look at the three schedules of the Bank Act more often.
It is disgusting how many ordinary Canadians made reference to the name "TD Canada Trust" and don't realize that it is a simply a business name and misleading moniker to hide from patrons of the defunct Canada Trust the fact that they have unwittingly become customers of the Toronto Dominion Bank, a bank which they may have hated when they were account holders with Canada Trust. Bank mergers is a hot-button political issue here in Canada. The Toronto Dominion Bank, which was commonly referred to as "TD Bank" prior to its complete takeover/swallowing of Canada Trust, is wise to adopt a hybrid-like business name like "TD Canada Trust" to fool patrons of the defunct Canada Trust into believing that much publicized (and criticized) the TD Bank - Canada Trust deal was a merger of two banks, like the creation of CIBC, and not a takeover by one big bank and the weakest of the old "Big Six" from the 1980s and early 1990s. "Big Six" has turned into "Big Five", and God help Canadian consumers if "Big Four" or "Big Three" is somewhere in the foreseeable future.
User:Alf74 9:22, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
- I'm rewriting my comments. IANAL and made the original edits. I personally don't have a problem with TD's brand management strategy. It's not like Canada Trust customers don't see the big TD on their statements and realize they were absorbed into TD's customer base. Deet 23:42, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
The other banks, or the Schedual two banks do not mean much in Canada. Living in Canada their branches might make up about 1% of all bank branches, and their market share is very small. The smallest major bank is equal to them all added up probably multiplied by a factor of 20. Their market penetration is next to nothing. --74.104.48.172 16:35, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
- I do not dispute that the Schedule II banks have little market presence in Canada AS A WHOLE. However, try visiting any of the big Canadian cities like Toronto or Vancouver, or even Ottawa or Hamilton, and you will notice a lot of HSBC banks. In Vancouver, in particular, there are probably as many HSBC banks as any one of the Big Five banks, and certainly more branches of HSBC Bank Canada than the Schedule I National Bank (which are seemingly everywhere in Ottawa.) It seems to me that Schedule II banks (and I am not just talking about HSBC) are more present in big cities with large immigrant communities, such as the Chinese immigrant community. Go into any HSBC bank and you will surely find a Chinese-looking teller who can speak either Cantonese or Mandarin and make the Chinese immigrant bank customer feel like he/she is in Hong Kong again. Of course, if one lives in Kenora, Swift Current or somewhere else outside the big cities, it is a totally different story. User:Alf74 10:15, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Creation of Money
Money is created by a combination of commercial banks and the Bank of Canada.
"The Bank of Canada is not able to control the money supply directly, because the deposit portion of the money supply results from decisions made within the private banking system. By taking deposits from individual Canadian households and firms and then lending these funds, the commercial banks, in essence, "create" money because, in theory, the new funds will be redeposited in the banking system. However, the money-creation powers of the commercial banks are constrained by 2 factors. First, if interest yields on other financial assets rise, Canadians will probably choose to hold a relatively smaller portion of their wealth as coin, currency and (largely low-yield) money deposits. Second, the banks are limited in loan expansion by the need to retain reserves (basically cash in the vault, and deposits of the individual banks at the Bank of Canada) to meet possible withdrawal needs. By altering interest rates and the level of banking reserves, or both, the Bank of Canada can manipulate the money supply indirectly with a high degree of precision (particularly over periods of 3 to 6 months or longer)."
- Canadian Encyclopedia
--Omnicog 18:02, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Introduction
I find that saying "Banking in Canada is one of the most efficient and safest banking systems in the world. According to the Ministry of Finance, Canada’s banks, also called chartered banks, have over 8,000 branches and almost 18,000 automated banking machines (ABMs) across the country[1]. 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"." as the introduction of the article is a pretty strong assertion, especially if there are no references.
A quick search on the number of ATMs in other countries brought up this page for example http://www.ecb.int/bc/faqbc/figures/html/index.en.html, which says that Spain, France or Italy, countries with roughly twice Canada's population, all have far more than 2*18000=36000 ATMs. So the assertion might still hold with the total number of ATMs (as opposed of ATMs of domestic banks) but I feel the whole introduction needs to be fact-checked.
142.58.65.62 18:50, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
- The introduction stemmed from http://www.fin.gc.ca/toce/2002/bank_e.html , specifically:
- "Canada’s banks operate through an extensive network that includes over 8,000 branches and close to 18,000 automated banking machines (ABMs) across the country. 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."
- Feel free to improve the article if you think there is conflicting information. Deet 00:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Section on banking/retail banking
I had suggested changing the second sentence in the section "Big Five" to reflect their Canadian banking activities, as opposed to just retail banking. It currently reads "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.[1]" While I have no problem with either sentence, in the current context the two do not work well together - it tends to imply that RBC (and by extension other Cdn banks) derive the balance of their activities from (vaguely defined) international or other non-banking activities.
Which, if one looks at RBC, is not true: its Canadian "personal and business banking" is 60% of the business, and it's this 60% that best corresponds to the core retail/business banking that most associate with "banking". Put differently, they are largely not financial conglomerates that have grown well beyond their origin and now have huge portions of their business that don't resemble the original business (like e.g. a Citibank), but large financial groups whose core historic business still mostly dominates.
I'm open to any suggestion that would address that...--Gregalton 16:38, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
