Building on last year’s federal budget, this year’s just released version adds new measures to make Canada’s banking sector more competitive, including the lowering of barriers to entry for challengers and – at long last – the implementation of a “real-time rail” system that will significantly speed up fund transfers between institutions.
The steps are intended to make it easier for startups like Neo, Koho, EQ Bank and others to chip away at the dominant market share – estimated around 90 per cent – of the Big Five: Royal Bank, CIBC, TD, Scotiabank and BMO.
But, while surveys show that Canadians are open to trying these challengers, the reality is proving to be different.
Rob Carrick has spent nearly 30 years covering personal finance and investing for The Globe and Mail. Canadians, he says, are innately resistant to trying alternative banking options, which inevitably makes it tough for those companies to gain traction and grow into legitimate challengers.
He joins the Do Not Pass Go podcast to digest the new budget’s measures, to assess Prime Minister Mark Carney’s banking bona fides, and to discuss how Canadians’ ingrained financial conservatism is contributing to the oligopoly problem.
Don’t forget to check out his Substack, and join the conversation on our brand new Discord server. And if you want to watch this podcast in video, check it out on YouTube.
