Four points need to be made here:
(1) Never have I been more grateful for this country’s prudent, risk-averse national character.
(2) Canadians are obsessed with their rank in the world. They should take a bow on this one. Surely this is more important than, say, junior hockey or the pommel horse.
(3) A year ago, the only time anyone wrote about banks was when they were bitching about ATM fees. Time for some perspective: Go hug your banker. And the next time he charges you a buck-fifty for making a $200 withdrawal at someone else’s bank, don’t whine about it, ok?
(4) Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton: Aren’t you now even more ashamed now about your sky-is-falling panic-mongering?
Canada rated world’s soundest bank system: survey
Thu Oct 9, 2008 4:40am EDT
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.
But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.
The United States, where some of Wall Street’s biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.
The United States was on Thursday considering buying a slice of debt-laden banks to inject trust back into lending between financial institutions now too wary of one another to lend.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).
Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).
UK banks collectively scored 6.0, narrowly behind the United States, Germany and Botswana, all with 6.1. France, in 19th place, scored 6.5 for soundness, while Switzerland’s banking system scored the same in 16th place, as did Singapore (13th).
The ranking index was released as central banks in Europe, the United States, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland slashed interest rates in a bid to end to panic selling on markets and restore trust in the shaken banking system.
The Netherlands (6.7), Belgium (6.6), New Zealand (6.6), Malta (6.6) rounded out the WEF’s banking top 10 with Ireland, whose government unilaterally pledged last week to guarantee personal and corporate deposits at its six major banks.
Also scoring well were Chile (6.5, 18th) and Spain, South Africa, Norway, Hong Kong and Finland all ending up in the top 20.
At the bottom of the list was Algeria in 134th place, with its banks scoring 3.9 to be just below Libya (4.0), Lesotho (4.1), the Kyrgyz Republic (4.1) and both Argentina and East Timor (4.2).
RANKINGS
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Luxembourg
4. Australia
5. Denmark
6. Netherlands
7. Belgium
8. New Zealand
9. Ireland
10. Malta 11. Hong Kong
12. Finland
13. Singapore
14. Norway
15. South Africa
16. Switzerland
17. Namibia
18. Chile
19. France
20. Spain
(HT:
More From The Ascent to Truth
- Michael Frost – “Vision for Transforming Neighbourhoods” (Liveblogging Renov8 #rv8) – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- Francis Schaeffer: “Aping the world’s wisdom…” – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- Raising Kids In An R-Rated World – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
