Compas Poll / Survey

Visiting Canada last week, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund lamented the patchwork of securities regulators and the barriers to foreign ownership and mergers in banking. He saw all of these as obstructing the growth of the Canadian economy.

On the matter of security regulation, the business panel is wholeheartedly in agreement. An extraordinary 80% see the situation as harming the economy. An equal number sees the situation as needing urgent remedy.

The CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel are less of one mind on banking structure. A small, apparent majority concurs that barriers to foreign ownership are an impediment to growth of the economy (55% vs. 23% disagree) while only a bare or nominal majority agrees that impediments to bank merger impedes the economy (51% vs. 26% disagree).

Panelists are less inclined to acquiesce to changes in the banking system than in securities regular in part because they are not universally sympathetic to the banks. On the one hand, some volunteer dissatisfaction with service to business. On the other hand, some note that the present constraints on bank ownership and merger have not inhibited banking profits.

A detailed examination of support for bank merger and reasons for and against shows that panelists have changed their minds little in five years.

These are the key findings from the past week’s web survey of the COMPAS CEO and business leader panel undertaken for The Financial Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.