Summary;
On Bloomberg's first-ever ranking of Worldwide banks, Canadian banks claimed 5 of the top 20 spots on the list. The top-rated Canadian bank was The National Bank of Canada at number 3. The other banks that made the top 20 spots include CIBC (4), TD Canada Trust (12), Royal Bank (17) and The Bank of Montreal (19). Taking the top spot was Singapore's Oversea-China Banking Group. In comparison to the United States, only three of their banks made it into the top 20. Placing at number 7 was Fifth Third Bancorp followed by JPMorgan Chase at 14 and Citigroup at 16. The rankings were comprised of banks with at least $100 billion in assets, cash reserves, non-performing assets against total assets. According to Andrew Addison, spokesperson for the Canadian Bankers Association, Canadian banks have been managed carefully through the years. In the world, Canada owns the highest capital ratio of all national banks. Other countries with banks that made it into the top 20 include Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, Sweden, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Connections;
In chapter 7, we are studying the Canadian banking system and the value of the Canadian dollar. The value of our money has steadily moved along compared to the stumbling US dollar. A major part of having a strong economy is the banking system. Without one, there could come difficult times. In the bank rankings posted by Bloomberg, Canada had the highest amount of top rated banks in the top 20 with 5. In the US, there were only 3 banks. Strong banking systems stimulate the economy, for example if another country looked to invest internationally they would often look for a country that is strong. Canada would seem like a good investment right now as we have some of the strongest banks in the world. When times are tough however, there could be uncertainty with the dollar like the United States. Their dollar has stumbled along the way because of major bail-outs approved by the government to save large American corporations. It may seem like a good time to invest in the United States at the moment, but there are doubts with their dollar and banking system. With these doubts, people are searching for alternatives like changing their assets into other forms of currency and precious metals.
Reflection;
In my honest opinion, these bank rankings tell us a lot about the economies in the world. Struggling or not, banking is a very important part of any country. With many countries changing some of their assets into other currencies, I believe that they are just decreasing the value of their own assets. For example, China has trillions of dollars in US Federal reserves and are starting to change some of those assets into Euros instead of keeping them in dollars. With China being such a major investor in the United States, this could cause an even deeper downfall for the US dollar. Many other people in different countries could follow in the same footsteps and do the same creating a even weaker economy in the States which could ultimately lead to "ditching" the dollar, predicted by certain economists.
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