Once again, Canadian banks and insurers want the country's government to allow its five large banks to merge, and to let insurers merge with banks. Even Manulife Financial Corp. chief executive Dominic D'Alessandro, who previously opposed bank mergers, is now saying they'd be all right, as would insurance-bank unions. "What changed my mind is that the market has changed, the participants have changed," D'Alessandro was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Globe and Mail. "In the last 10 years, we've had the insurance industry totally rationalize and [some] of us are now very large public companies, larger than many of the banks."
The paper also quoted Stanley Hartt, once an adviser to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and now chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Canada Inc., as calling on the government to permit bank mergers, should it strengthen its standing in the next election. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty reiterated Monday that bank reform is not a high priority. The new calls to allow bank mergers comes 10 years to the month after two pairs of Canadian banks -- Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal; and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank -- announced mergers in defiance of government rules. The finance minister struck down the planned mergers and the four banks have remained independent, as has the fifth major Canadian bank, Bank of Nova Scotia. -
Peter MoreiraSee story from The Globe and Mail
See story from Reuters
See 2004 story from TheDeal.com on the dim prospects of Canadian bank mergers
