Bay St the new Wall St.

[The Condo Observer]

If Canadian financial institutions position themselves properly in the coming weeks and months we will see a massive transfer of power to Bay Street.

This can only be beneficial to our city. This is our chance to catapult ourselves from a second tier north american city to a truly top tier world class financial destination.

Hoping the bigwigs are tuned in and ready to roll.

 

[Barn]

sounds good. How

 

[androiduk]

See my recent post below in the real estate section. In this environment, nothing can be ruled out.


"If things keep going like this, Toronto could very well take over New York & London as the financial capital of the world. Now wouldn't that be something!"

 

[Barn]

Well, it is about time that somebody notices our quiet, steady, and prudent nation-building.

 

[wyliepoon]

This should be good news for you Bay Street boosters...

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=c3a67e3b-1aef-4daf-a768-a54eedb80185

Canada's banks ranked the soundest
Eric Beauchesne , Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, October 09, 2008

OTTAWA - Canada has the world's soundest banking system, according to a report released this week by the World Economic Forum amid soaring concerns about the health of banking systems here and around the world.

Canada's banks received a score of 6.8 out of possible seven in a survey of more than 12,000 senior executives in 134 countries who were asked to rank the soundness of bank's in their own countries in the annual survey by the Swiss-based non-profit think-tank.

It squeezed ahead of the banks in five other countries - Sweden, Luxembourg, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands - all of which received a score of 6.7 per cent.

In contrast to Canada, the United States, where the current financial market storm erupted and where several major financial institutions have gone under or been taken over, was ranked 40th in terms of the soundness of its banks with a score of 6.1 out of seven.

The report supports the contention of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who reassured Canadians on Thursday that their bank deposits are in no jeopardy and that Canada's financial system is sound and solvent.

"I can assure Canadians that their deposits are safe," Flaherty told reporters prior to heading out to Washington for a meeting with his G7 counterparts and central bank governors, where they will discuss ways to end the current financial crisis which has toppled some of the world's major financial institutions and deepened the global credit crunch.

The bank soundness survey results were contained in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Competitiveness report, which ranked Canada 10th out of 134 countries in terms of overall competitiveness, well behind the U.S. which was ranked No. 1.

"Despite the financial crisis, the United States continues to be the most competitive economy in the world," the report said.

Canada, however, moved up in the ranks this year from 13th spot a year ago.

"Canada benefits from top-notch transport and telephony infrastructure; highly efficient markets, particularly labour and financial markets, and well-functioning and transparent institutions," it said. "In addition, the educational system gets excellent marks for quality, which has prepared the country's workforce to adopt the latest technologies for productivity enhancements.

Canada's main weakness is its economic stability, which it blamed on its relatively high level of government debt, which it put at 70 per cent of GDP, placing it at 107 out of 134 countries, it said.

That ranking is surprising given the fact Flaherty has repeatedly boasted that Canada has the lowest debt of any country in the G7 major industrial countries, putting it at around 20 per cent of GDP.

However, the World Economic Forum measure is gross government debt as a share of GDP, while the Canadian government measure cited by Flaherty is net debt, which deducts the assets in the Canada and Quebec pension plan, a Finance Department official explained.

Regardless, the World Economic Forum report acknowledges the Canadian government's debt level is easing.

Meanwhile, the report explained that the reason the U.S. is still ranked as having the most competitive economy is because "it is endowed with many structural features that make its economy extremely productive and place it on a strong footing to ride out business cycle shifts and economic shocks."

"Thus, despite rising concerns about the soundness of the banking sector and other macroeconomic weaknesses, the country's many other strengths continue to make it a very productive environment," it said.

"However, the United States has built up large macroeconomic imbalances over recent years, with repeated fiscal deficits leading to rising and burgeoning levels of public indebtedness," it added. "This indicates that the country is not preparing financially for its future liabilities and is on the road to making interest payments that will increasingly restrict its fiscal policy freedom going into the future."

*****

It also comes as a bit of surprise that the TSE is the 7th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization (Wikipedia), just behind Hong Kong, but ahead of the likes of Frankfurt, India, Australia, Milan and even Korea.

 

[UserNameToronto]

If Canadian financial institutions position themselves properly in the coming weeks and months we will see a massive transfer of power to Bay Street.

This can only be beneficial to our city. This is our chance to catapult ourselves from a second tier north american city to a truly top tier world class financial destination.

Hoping the bigwigs are tuned in and ready to roll.

Massive transfer of power? What?

 

[Jonny5]

In this environment, having the soundest banks, means you also have the most isolated banks with the least foreign exposure. You don't pick up foreign exposure overnight, it comes from years or decades of work. Canada's banks are not positioned to expand globally at all. They are tiny, insular and have barely gotten a toehold in the US. This is largely because previous attempts to do so in the 90's were a disaster, like Scotia's move into South America and CIBC financing Enron.


Today, I've heard rumours swirling fiercely about an iminent announcement of massive layoffs by both CIBC and National Bank. As much as 10% of the work force is the figure floated. No surpise from CIBC as they are one continuous train wreck, but National was supposed to be on somewhat better ground.

 

[Whoaccio]

Bay st. will not be the new Wall Street for some time. Our bank laws are far too restrictive for that to ever happen. Even if CitiGroup or Barclays wanted to set up an operation in Canada, they can't because of the Bank Act which essentially prohibits foreign companies from seriously operating in Canada. If we let the big four merge and allowed foreign banks into Canada, then maybe we could beef up out stature to something approaching Hong Kong.

 

[Edward Skira]

In this environment, having the soundest banks, means you also have the most isolated banks with the least foreign exposure. You don't pick up foreign exposure overnight, it comes from years or decades of work. Canada's banks are not positioned to expand globally at all. They are tiny, insular and have barely gotten a toehold in the US. This is largely because previous attempts to do so in the 90's were a disaster, like Scotia's move into South America and CIBC financing Enron.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Scotia, Royal and TD are all making major moves outside the county. Scotia's net income in the last quarter was about $1 billion with $371 million coming from international operations. And that $371 million is mainly from the Caribbean and South America as Scotia is the one bank that has avoided the US so far.

 

[ShonTron]

Exactly. If you think you can't escape Scotiabank here with all the branding and sponsorships, try Mexico. They're everywhere. I have a friend who all he does is maske location decisions for Mexican and Central American branches.

Also try to go anywhere in New England without running into a TD logo. With Waterhouse and Banknorth, TD has the naming rights for two NBA venues in the US.

I won't dispute the fact that CIBC is a trainwreck, however.

 

[simply Dan]

Now that TD has acquired Commerce Bank, you will see the TD brand on every other street corner in New York City - and from New England all the way down to Miami.

 

[Urban Shocker]

New life for Hans Kleefeld's TD logo, designed 40 years ago.

 

[maestro]

If Canadian financial institutions position themselves properly in the coming weeks and months we will see a massive transfer of power to Bay Street.

Doubtful as the world operations are almost entirely conducted outside of Canada. Maybe Philly will get their supertall

 

[Quanttrader]

RBC is somewhere around the 10th largest bank on the planet. They in very good shape relatively speaking. But Toronto is not about to challenge NY or London for banking supremacy. Hate to break it to you. The entire financial sector is going to shrink- everywhere. The world is de-leveraging and the finance world subsists on leverage.