Financial Services and Regulation - Op Eds

Just over two decades ago, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act put the regulation of corporate compliance on the map. It has since become a governance preoccupation, spawning armies of compliance professionals, commanding a substantial portion of every board’s agenda and costing hundreds of billions of dollars. Elaborate legal mechanisms — such as sentencing guidelines, whistleblowing regimes and personal liability of directors and management — aim at preventing employee wrongdoing and heightening oversight by directors and senior management to ensure internal systems are effective.

The objective — better, more honest governance — is hard to argue with. Yet time and time again we see high-profile firms encouraging, acquiescing in or simply…

Ottawa has set its sights on reining in predatory lending rates. Last year it set out draft regulations that would lower the rate non-prime lenders can charge from 48 to 35 per cent (“annual percentage rate” or APR). Will that keep people who are prey to predatory lending from entering a cycle of debt? Probably not.

There are two types of borrowers, prime and non-prime. Prime borrowers have strong credit scores that give banks and credit unions confidence they will pay their loans on time and in full. As a result, they can borrow at reasonable interest rates. Non-prime borrowers are more diverse. Some have a checkered repayment history. Others, including immigrants, have no Canadian credit history. Because banks and credit…

The last two years have not been kind to central banks. Inflation in many countries soared far beyond target, reaching levels not seen in decades. Central bankers have responded with necessary but painful interest rate hikes.

Despite disappointment in the performance of many central banks, let’s not lose sight of key lessons. First, inflation stinks, inflicting most harm on those who can afford it least. Second, central banks are the best institutions we have to make sure it goes away and doesn’t come back. As we head into 2024 and inflation continues to fall, it’s worth remembering why the world established central banks and low inflation targets in the first place.

Until the 1990s, central banks struggled…

The Bank of Canada once again held its policy rate at 5 per cent on Wednesday, as expected.

After two months of disappointment, with the annual change in the Consumer Price Index ticking up in July and August, inflation resumed its descent in September, falling to 3.8 per cent from 4 per cent. That, plus weak economic numbers, made it practically certain – confirmed by the expectations of financial markets – that the central bank would hold.

The real questions concern the bank’s end point for monetary policy in the medium term and what that means for Canadians.

The bank is probably at the end of its tightening cycle. But this doesn’t mean interest rates are coming back down to where they were before…

In public policy, as in life generally, we often recognize mistakes by others more easily than we recognize mistakes we make ourselves. Italy just goofed big-time with a windfall tax on its banks, and Canadians should take notice.

Last month, the coalition government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a surtax of 40 per cent on the profits of the country’s banks. The announcement triggered a crash in bank stocks – a loss of €10-billion in a single day – and a storm of criticism from investors, economists and elected representatives, including members of the coalition.

Ms. Meloni’s government has since backtracked, capping the amount at 1 per cent of bank assets, and exempting smaller banks. But the…