Canadian CEOs and business leaders were asked to share their thoughts on insurance company mergers in the days that followed press releases of a potential merger between Manulife and Canada Life. Business leaders express virtually the same opinions about insurance company mergers as they did about bank mergers last month, indicating that perhaps the rules that the government should impose on mergers could be the same for all organizations.

Business leaders are in favour of insurance company mergers in general, but also express desire for at least as much competition after mergers as experienced now. Most respondents see merit in the advocates’ argument that insurance companies need to be larger in order to play in global markets.

These are the key findings from the current web-survey of CEOs and other business leaders conducted by COMPAS on behalf of the National Post under sponsorship of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

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