Banking in Canada is widely considered one of the safest banking systems in the world, ranking as the world's soundest banking system for six consecutive 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. According to a report released by the office of the Minister of Finance in 2002 Canada's banks, also called chartered banks, have over 8,000 branches and almost 18,000 automated banking machines across the country. The report goes on to state "Canada has the highest number of ATMs per capita in the world and benefits from the highest penetration levels of electronic channels such as debit cards, Internet banking and telephone banking". More recent data published by the World Bank shows that as of 2017 Canada has 227.82 ATMs per 100,000 adults, which ranks the country third worldwide.
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 their own local bank notes as currency. However throughout the 1850s and early 1860s a number of bank failures caused a loss of confidence in bank notes. The passing of The Provincial Notes Act in 1866 allowed federal and provincial governments to begin to introduce their own notes. With the Canadian Confederation taking place in 1867, the new Dominion government gained complete control over currency and banking. In 1871 the federal government passed the Bank Act which started the process of bringing all charted banks in the country under common regulation. The establishment of the Bank of Canada in 1935 was also an important milestone in banking and monetary governance. The Canadian banking system has long been regarded by industry experts to be one of the strongest and most stable banking systems in the world. This is shown by Bank of Montreal paying dividends to share holders every year since 1829, Scotiabank since 1833, Toronto-Dominion Bank since 1857, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce since 1868 and Royal Bank of Canada since 1870 respectively. In Canada, only two small regional banks have failed since 1923 when the Home Bank of Canada failed. This was both Canadian Commercial Bank and Northland Bank in September of 1985. To put this into perspective there were no bank failures in Canada during the Great Depression, World War II, the 1979 Energy Crisis, the Dot-com Bubble, the Sept 11th Attacks or the Subprime Mortgage Crisis.
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, 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. Between July and September 2016, three new domestic Schedule 1 banks have begun operating in Canada with an additional fourth bank poised to announce its commencement in the following month. When the fourth bank begins operations, it will be almost a 15% increase in domestic banks from 27 to 31. The new banks have identified niches compared to the wider reach of the "Big Five". Wealth One Bank of Canada aims to service the country's growing Chinese Canadian population with full Mandarin and Cantonese supported speakers. Exchange Bank of Canada deals exclusively in foreign currency services on a wholesale level to financial institutions and businesses. UNI Financial Corp. was formed as Caisses populaires acadiennes become the first Canadian credit union to obtain a federal bank charter.
Regulation
Canada's federal government has sole jurisdiction for banks according to the Canadian Constitution, specifically Section 91 of The Constitution Act, 1867, 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, 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 ; associated brands of the Big Five such as Tangerine and Simplii Financial; and smaller second-tier banks such as National Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank of Canada, 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 III: Foreign banks permitted to carry on business in Canada. Examples include Citibank N.A., 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, under certain restrictions mentioned in the Bank Act.
The bank regulator is the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, whose authority stems from the Bank Act. The financial groups are also governed by regulatory bodies in each country in which they operate.
Canadian banks
In everyday commerce, the banks in Canada are generally referred to in two categories: the five large national banks and smaller second-tier banks. The five largest banks in Canada are:
Notable second-tier banks include Canadian Western Bank, National Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank, HSBC Bank Canada, and Tangerine Bank. These second-tier organizations are largely Canadian domestic banking organizations or Canadian subsidiaries of foreign banks. Insurance companies in Canada have also created deposit-taking bank subsidiaries, and two notable non-bank consumer financial institutions are ATB Financial and the Desjardins Group. For a complete list of institutions see: List of banks and credit unions in Canada
"Big Five" banks
While most Canadian banks operate only within Canada, the Big Five banks are best described as Canadian multinational financial conglomerates that each have a large Canadian banking division. In fiscal 2007, RBC's Canadian segment called "Personal Financial Services" had revenue of only CAD$5,082 million 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 are not shown.
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.
