As Canada’s financial capital and North America’s second largest financial hub, the GTA’s enviable prosperity has been anchored historically by the global competitiveness of its outsized financial sector – banking, insurance, pension funds and asset management.
Among its 10,000 financial services businesses, the Toronto region counts four of North America’s top 10 largest banks, one of the world’s largest asset management firms, several global life insurance companies, internationally active pension funds, and one of North America’s top financial markets groups. The sector is a tech and innovation powerhouse and stands as a beacon of cross-border capital efficiency.
The Challenge
Our financial services sector – combined with its massive supporting ecosystem – is the source of nearly 300,000 high value, well-paying jobs in the region, critically fueling dynamic business growth and investment across the entire economy.
But the competitive edge we’ve come to rely on is slipping. Over the past 15 years, Canada’s financial sector has fallen behind other OECD countries in its contribution to GDP growth. Improving productivity across the sector would boost not only industry performance but also the economy as a whole.
Turning around the GTA’s productivity freefall will require stepping up the international competitiveness of this vital sector, which cannot be taken for granted in today’s turbulent world of rapid change.
The Opportunity
The BCT’s Financial Services Competitiveness Coalition brings together key industry leaders with the mission of retaining a highly competitive and resilient financial sector in the Region. Through insights development, focused initiatives and targeted advocacy, the Coalition will drive growth across the sector’s diverse business lines and maintain global scale in our key domestic financial institutions.
The Financial Services Competitiveness Coalition will consider and advocate for regulatory and technology projects and programs to strengthen the productivity of the sector and, crucially, its urgent contribution to business investment and growth across the Toronto region.
“In a globalized world, it is crucially important that Canada has a comparative advantage in financial services. If it does, Canada benefits in two ways: first by providing productivity-enhancing resources at home and, second, by providing these resources abroad to countries.
– CD Howe Institute, Productivity and the Financial Sector – What's Missing
