Banking in Canada

View of a Scotiabank facade in Amherst, Nova Scotia. This structure was erected in 1907.

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.[6] 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[7] 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.[7] 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[8] 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.[9][10][11] This is shown by Bank of Montreal paying dividends to share holders every year since 1829 (191 years ago),[12] Scotiabank since 1833 (187 years ago),[12] Toronto-Dominion Bank since 1857 (163 years ago),[13] Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce since 1868 (152 years ago)[14] and Royal Bank of Canada since 1870 (150 years ago)[15] 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.[16] 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.

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.[17]

Between July and September 2016, three new domestic Schedule 1 banks (Wealth One Bank of Canada, Exchange Bank of Canada, and UNI Financial Corp) 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 (Impak Finance Inc), 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.[18]

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.[22] 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.[23] 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.

*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.