That’s right… Canada
Did you know that the Toronto Dominion Bank was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn’t grown in size; the others have all shrunk.
In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. America’s ranked 40th, Britain’s 44th.
Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize.
How is all this so? Well, Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada’s more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.
The points above come directly from the following article, published online last Saturday, and to be published in the February 16, 2009 of Newsweek. It is an excellent review of the state of Canada and the Canadian banking system – Newsweek – Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (by editor Fareed Zakaria).
At AltaPacific Mortgages we feel energized and positive about the future of investing in Canadian real estate and investing in Canadian mortgages. Investing in a mortgage pool (for Canadian real estate) makes sense for many Canadian and foreign investors who desire preservation of capital with potentially healthy returns. If you have RSP, RRSP, RRIF or private placement funds that you’d like to place in an investment vehicle like AltaPacific private shares, please feel free to contact us for more details.
