Canada Home to World’s Strongest Banking System

Canada Home to World’s Strongest Banking System

Canada’s banking system was ranked the World’s strongest for the sixth straight year by the World Economic Forum.

The Global Competitiveness Report done by the Geneva based organization placed Calgary as number one of 149 evaluated countries. It was released on Wednesday, September 4th, 2013.

Top 10 Strongest Individual Banks 2013

A report released by Bloomberg Markets only a few months ago supports the World Economic Forum’s findings. According to Bloomberg, four of the top ten banks in the world are Canadian. Here they are…

1 – Qatar National Bank – Qatar

2 – Oversea-Chinese Banking – Signapore

3 – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – Canada

4 – Royal Bank of Canada – Canada

5 – DBS Group Holdings – Signapore

6 – United Overseas Bank – Signapore

7 – Bank of Nova Scotia – Canada

8 – Toronto-Dominion Bank – Canada

9 – Citigroup – United States of America

10 – Hang Seng Bank – Hong Kong

Latest Economic Downturn and Canadian Banks

When Canada’s financial institutions escaped the economic drought in 2008 relatively unharmed, they soon became known as the strongest in the world.

Bloomberg also mentions that Canadian banks started making moves to gain on the woes of smaller banking institutions ever since the latest economic downturn.

The six biggest banks in Canada (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada) since 2008 have made around 100 acquisitions and have spent almost $38 billion dollars doing so.

Canadian Banking Facts

• The banking sector added around $53 billion dollars, or 3.1% of the national GDP to the economy in 2012

• Approximately 275,000 Canadians are employed by the banks. Full time positions have increased a bit more than 25 percent over the past decade (2012)

• Also in 2012, $12.6 billion dollars in dividends were paid to shareholders, which includes Canadian citizens through retirement plans and pensions

• Around 1.6 million small and medium sized businesses are financed by the banks

*Sourced from World Economic Forum, Bloomberg Markets, Canadian Bankers Association

Check out more financial articles on Calgary, Alberta and Canada today at our Canadian Economics Article. Thanks for stopping in, we hope to have you back soon!