Canadian Banker articles from March 1997

Canadian Banker archives from March 1997

Put customer needs first, CBA's Protti urges financial-services task force. (Canadian Bankers Association President Ray Protti)
March 1, 1997... As the federal government's new Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial-Services Sector begins its work of preparing recommendations to ensure that Canada's financial system remains strong and healthy, its members should be guided...

Who do you trust? Doctors? Lawyers? Bankers?
March 1, 1997... Canadians trust bank executives about as much as they trust members of the clergy, according to a recent survey. The Pollara Public Trust Index has found that 32% of respondents trust "people who run banks" a lot, and another 42% trust them a...

ICB joins financial-planning standards organization. (Institute of Canadian Bankers)
March 1, 1997... The Institute of Canadian Bankers (ICB) has agreed to become a member of the Financial Planners Standards Council of Canada (FPSCC) and will offer a program that leads to the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. "This move will open...

How important is financial services?
March 1, 1997... Financial services is a primary contributor to both employment and economic growth in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Canada, concludes a report conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on behalf of Scotiabank. One of the report's key...

Cool, calm and collecting. (effective debt collection)
March 1, 1997... Effective debt collection is a matter of helping people out of a problem, says this specialist. According to Margaret Grobisen, collecting money from delinquent customers doesn't have to be a distasteful experience for either the collector or...

The complaint catchers. (Canada's bank ombudsmen)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... Over a year after most of them opened their doors for business, Canada's bank ombudsmen aren't as busy as expected. Nobody's complaining about that. They file into a board-room of a lofty downtown Toronto bank tower and take their places...

Capturing the wealthy client. (private banking)
March 1, 1997... Just about everybody wants a piece of the wealth-management business. But some institutions are better at it than others. Private banking is not a business for everyone. Not all providers have the client base, the service background and product...

Course 101: managing debt. (student finance)
March 1, 1997... When it comes to coping with loans and credit cards, too many post-secondary students are flunking out. The banks, sometimes accused of being part of the problem, are helping to find solutions. Their core strategy, appropriately enough, is...

Which side are they on? (public-sector lending agencies)
March 1, 1997... Bankers worry that public-sector lending agencies, originally set up to work with commercial banks or fill voids in the market, now seem intent on competing head-to-head with the private sector. In the summer of 1995, the owner of a Toronto...

Holy finance! (Vatican Bank)
March 1, 1997... Following disastrous mismanagement and a sensational scandal in the 1980s, the secretive Vatican Bank is said to have been brought under strict control by the Pope, who is the bank's sole owner (although, presumably, he reports to a higher...

Making ends meet. (personal savings and spendings among Canadians)
March 1, 1997... Anyone counting on consumers to kick the economy into high gear is likely to be disappointed. Consumers are in no position to go on spending binges. Even spending as much as they've done in the past three years has meant a drastic reduction in...

Are credit-card costs too high?
March 1, 1997... THE MYTH Interest rates on credit cards are excessively high, critics claim. As the Bank of Canada rate and prime lending rates have dropped to their lowest levels in decades, banks and other credit-card issuers should have lowered interest...