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Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector Report of the Task Force September 1998 Cat No.: BT22-61/1998E ISBN 0-662-27133-5 For additional copies of this document please contact: Distribution Centre Department of Finance 300 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa K1A 0G5 Telephone: (613) 995-2855 Facsimile: (613) 996-0518 Also available through the Internet at http://finservtaskforce.fin.gc.ca Cette publication est également disponible en français. 3 September 14, 1998 The Honourable Paul Martin, P.C., M.P. Minister of Finance House of Commons Ottawa Dear Mr. Minister: We have the honour to enclose the Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector. The report responds to the terms of reference which you established on December 19, 1996. It sets forth our unanimous conclusions and recommendations in respect of the issues that you placed before us. With the report we are delivering five background papers, each of which dis- cusses in detail the reasoning which has led us to our conclusions. We are also delivering to you today 18 research studies which the Task Force commis- sioned and which underlie our work. We wish to thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve Canada by par- ticipating in this challenging review. We hope that our recommendations will provide you with helpful information and guidance. We have titled our report Change, Challenge and Opportunity. We are living in a turbulent period. Change is a hallmark of our times and the pace of change seems to be accelerating. Change presents challenges to all of us – to our financial institutions, which are facing new forms of competition in markets that are increasingly global; to consumers, who are presented with increased choice but also new risks and different relationships with providers; and to policymakers and regulators, who require flexibility and skills that have not previously been necessary to fulfil their important public policy responsibilities well. Our report sets out these challenges in some detail. It also points to the signif- icant opportunities that change is bringing. Canada is, on balance, well posi- tioned to benefit from a healthy, dynamic, innovative and competitive financial services sector into the next millennium. For a small country in population terms, Canada has many relatively large and successful financial institutions. We believe that they, along with new entrepreneurs in the financial services sector, are capable of positioning themselves so that they will be positive forces in the Canadian economy in the years ahead. 4 A strong financial services industry, based in Canada and capable of carrying on successful operations both at home and outside our borders, is clearly important to Canadians. We believe that it is within our reach, and that our recommendations will assist Canadian institutions, consumers, policymakers and regulators to meet the challenges of change and to realize the opportunities. The changes are inexorable and we cannot ignore them or pretend they do not exist. For financial institutions, their customers and public policy, reliance on the status quo is no option. Because of the speed of change, we urge you and your colleagues to deal promptly with the public policy issues we have identified. Yours sincerely, Harold MacKay, Chairman Pierre Ducros, Vice Chairman Neil Baker Norm Bromberger Donald Brown Moya Cahill John McArthur Lynne Toupin 6 Acknowledgments We wish to thank those Canadians who took the time and made the effort to inform us of their views. Through your participation you have made an impor- tant input into critical issues of public policy for our country. We extend our appreciation to those who authored our external research stud- ies. The authors, a full list of whom is set forth in Appendix 3, have done research that has greatly assisted us. We are sure that this work will also pro- vide valuable input to action planning by governments, financial institutions and others in the community. The members of the Task Force are particularly grateful to the hard working staff with whom we have been blessed. Their energy, dedication to the task and unfailing good humour and collegiality produced, in a short time frame, a team effort of impressive proportions. Our schedule was an aggressive one. Given the breadth of our task, we needed people not only with knowledge and expe- rience, but also with curiosity and creativity to look beyond the known. Our staff met and exceeded these expectations. We owe particular words of appreciation to Fred Gorbet, the Executive Director of the Task Force. His formidable organizational and writing skills were strong pillars on which we have built our work. His substantive wisdom, intellectual rigor, and insights into the issues, from both public and private sector perspec- tives, have been invaluable to us and have been of great value to Canada. Our senior research staff, Michael Andrews, Beth Atcheson, John Chant, Louise Pelly and Kevin Wright, led our research efforts and were the principal authors of the five Background Papers which underlie this Report. We thank them for taking leave of their tasks elsewhere to help us with our work. We also owe a special debt to Michel Caron who reviewed and commented on the Background Papers and the Report as they were written. The remainder of our research team and staff worked hard and effectively together, despite the sometimes tight deadlines and what must have appeared tedious rounds of edits, to allow us to complete our work. They have made it possible for us to meet our schedule and to do so, we hope, in a way that will allow us to make a solid contribution to Canadian public policy. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Danielle Bryden, Jim Callon, Françoise Charlebois, Stephen Frank, Bob Hannah, Neil Mohindra and Alva Smith. We want to say a special word of thanks to Christine Daniel who provided unflagging adminis- trative support to the Chairman and Executive Director and other members of the Task Force. We recognize the contribution of James Baillie, Barbara Rae and Guy Saint- Pierre who served as Task Force members, and in the case of Mr. Baillie as Task Force Chair, during a portion of the work of the Task Force. Finally we would be remiss if we did not express our gratitude to Frank Swedlove of the Department of Finance, who was a helpful source of back- ground information when we needed it. 7 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Overview . 13 Four Main Themes . 14 Enhancing Competition and Competitiveness . 14 Empowering Consumers . 15 Canadians’ Expectations and Corporate Conduct . 16 Improving the Regulatory Framework . 16 Some Basic Premises . 17 Chapter 2 Approach of the Task Force . 19 Background and Terms of Reference . 19 Our Approach to Our Mandate . 20 How We Did Our Work . 20 Consultations . 20 Research . 21 Interim Report . 21 Communication with Canadians . 22 Bank Mergers . 22 The Structure of Our Report . 22 Chapter 3 The Forces of Change . 25 Technology . 26 Globalization . 28 Demographics . 30 The Responses to Change . 31 Consumers . 31 Financial Institutions . 33 Policymakers . 35 Regulators . 36 Summary . 37 Chapter 4 The Financial Services Sector and its Challenges . 39 The Importance of the Financial Services Sector . 39 A Snapshot of the Sector . 41 Changing Asset Preferences . 41 The Players . 43 Deposit-Taking Institutions . 44 The Banks . 44 The Credit Unions and Caisses Populaires . 45 8 Trust Companies . 45 Insurance Companies . 45 The Life Insurance Industry . 45 The Property and Casualty Insurance Industry . 46 Mutual Funds . 46 Other Market Participants . 47 Trends and Issues . 47 The Changing Face of Competition . 48 The Growing Importance of Mutual Funds . 50 Securitization . 51 Factors Affecting Continued Business Success . 52 Consolidation . 55 Second-Tier Institutions . 56 Life Insurance Companies . 57 Are Canadians Well Served by Their Financial Institutions? . 58 Individual Consumers . 58 The Small Business Community . 59 Larger Enterprises . 60 Summary . 60 Positioning for Challenges and Opportunities . ..
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