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Best bank: TD Bank |
Despite being neighbours and indeed competitors of US counterparts, Canada’s banks have fared much better than them in avoiding sub-prime related losses. And of all the Canadian financial groups one bank stands out as having enjoyed the best 2007-08 period – TD Bank. TD is the only large bank in Canada to have had no credit-related write-downs.
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Ed Clark: "pretty obvious risks in sub-prime" |
To have avoided sub-prime losses is testament to chief executive Ed Clark’s tutelage, and he has been vocal in admitting that it was not a result of genius but rather recognizing that "all the risks that brought the financial services [sector] down were well-known risks, much debated, and that anyone that sat down and studied these products could see it was pretty obvious."
The retail business is TD’s largest earnings contributor at about 90%, and it has gone from strength to strength domestically, and in the US with the acquisition of Commerce Bank, which closed in March this year.