Canadian Banker articles from January 1999

Canadian Banker archives from January 1999

Moving right along....(challenges facing Canadian banks in 1999)(Editorial)
January 1, 1999... Nineteen Ninety-eight will surely be remembered as one of the most tumultuous years in the history of Canadian banking. No doubt many bankers are glad it's over. From the announcement of the first proposed "mega-merger" in January to Finance...

In the aftermath of Martin's decision on the mergers - what happens now?(Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin's rejection of proposed bank mergers)
January 1, 1999... With Finance Minister Paul Martin having ruled out the proposed bank mergers, attention now focuses on the legislative changes he'll initiate in coming months to help prepare the financial-services industry for the new millennium. Although...

Design for banking.(architect Bruno Leclerc of National Bank of Canada)
January 1, 1999... Keeping the bricks and mortar up to date and looking good is vital for the image of the bank. When Bruno Leclerc was a young lad growing up in Donnaconna, Que., about 40 km west of Quebec City on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, he...

Great X-pectations.(includes related articles on young bank customers and on the views of young Canadians on the financial sector)(new generation of banking employees and customers)(Cover Story)
January 1, 1999... Generation X, Nexus, call it what you like, there's a new generation of customers and employees moving up the demographic ladder. Banks must understand their distinctive attitudes to life, work and money. If you were born before 1960, you...

The big business of small-business lending.(includes related article on alternative sources of SME financing)
January 1, 1999... Those who blame the banks for not extending enough credit to SMEs are missing the real problem: high taxes that restrict access to equity financing. The business of small-business lending puts bankers into the daily lives of millions of...

Building not bashing.(small-business lending in Canada)
January 1, 1999... The good news is that there's a real payoff for banks in meeting the real needs of small businesses. One bank that scored especially well in the Thompson Lightstone survey of SME customers was Hongkong Bank of Canada, which changed its name in...

A year of building a better understanding.(includes related article on CBA publications)(Canadian Bankers Association's communications program)
January 1, 1999... The banking industry's communications program, launched in January 1998, has far exceeded expectations. Three commercials from the Canadian Bankers Association are hitting television screens across Canada in January in the latest wave of...

More power to the credit unions.(in Canada)
January 1, 1999... Are community-based credit unions ready or willing to take on the beefed-up national role envisioned for them by the MacKay task force? First Calgary & Savings & Credit Union Ltd. typifies the aggressive mood of Canada's credit-union...

Desjardins: a model for the rest of Canada?(Quebec's Desjardins caisses populaires)
January 1, 1999... 'There is an opportunity," says the MacKay report, "for the credit-union movement to build a system that is capable of achieving in the rest of Canada the same level of success achieved by the Mouvement Desjardins in Quebec." That...

The ups and downs of petro-finance.
January 1, 1999... Undaunted by the recent slump in prices, bankers who work with oil and gas producers are optimistic about the industry's prospects at home and abroad. Canada's oil and gas sector is basically healthy. The industry has diversified and...

Bankers join the move to the east coast.(growth of oil and gas projects in Atlantic Canada)
January 1, 1999... Calgary still reigns as the capital of Canada's petroleum industry, but it's now dealing with a pretender to the throne as oil and gas projects blossom in Newfoundland and Nova.Scotia. With Hibernia nearing 135,000 barrels of oil per day...

What's cooking in bank technology?
January 1, 1999... Futuristic devices that will make banking more convenient may be just around the corner. How about banking from your microwave? You're preparing supper after a harried day's work. Reluctantly the kids relinquish the microwave, on which...

Post no bills.(electronic bill presentment)
January 1, 1999... Bills that arrive in the mail are a technological roadblock. Help is on the way - it's called EBP. The word for today is kludge. Rhymes with fudge. Or, sometimes, with stooge. However you say it, Nudge is a lovely, chewy, expressive word...

The new stability of work.(job stability in Canada)
January 1, 1999... Job stability in Canada has increased in the 1990s. In 1996, new employees could expect to stay in their jobs for an average of 50 months, compared to just 41 months a decade earlier, according to a Statistics Canada study. The increase in job...

The bug stops here.(includes related article on sources of assistance)(dealing with Year 2000 computer problem)
January 1, 1999... For the rest of the year we'll be using this page to track progress being made in tackling the Year 2000 Problem. Jan. 1, 2000, is now less than a year away and we're hearing wildly conflicting forecasts about the impact of the so-called...