http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/07/18/why_canadas_banks_will_feel_the_urge_to_merge_olive.html
Some 15 years after the Big Five banks’ urge to merge was doused with ice water by Ottawa, don’t be surprised to see a renewed merger campaign, sooner rather than later.
In order to keep growing — or prevent a decline in their capabilities — Canada’s largest banks must become much bigger players outside Canada, and reduce their over-reliance on a small, slow-growing domestic Canadian market. To do that, they need to combine into fewer and larger entities with the heft and staying power to thrive in the most promising offshore markets.
15 years ago, then Finance Minister Paul Martin shot the idea of bank mergers down.
15 years later, will Joe Oliver do the same? The Conservatives like to portray themselves as pro-consumer; they have intervened in the telecommunications industry, trying to create the conditions for a fourth national carrier. Unfortunately, things have not worked out that way.
I read the Bloomberg article where TD and RBC rank at $900 Billion in assets, Scotiabank at $800 Billion, BMO at $580 Billion and CIBC at $400 Billion. The reason why CIBC is so small is that they exited the US market and sold all their assets off after a series of disasters, Enron being one of the more major ones.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/big-5-canada-banks-now-big-3-as-assets-diverge.html
Maybe BMO and CIBC could make the case to merge in order to keep up with the other three, but I don’t know if Joe Oliver would allow it.
Agreed ! Hell No !!!!
Thank goodness we have credit unions to flock to.