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Jeremy Rudin, new OSFI head, speaks at Economic Club luncheon in Toronto, Tuesday September 30, 2014.

Canada's top financial regulator isn't worried about a growing concentration of power among the country's largest banks and insurers.

Over the past three years, the Canadian operations of companies such as ING Groep NV, Ally Financial Inc. and Standard Life PLC's have all been swallowed by large domestic banks and insurers, and barely anyone has said a peep about the consequences.

The beneficiaries of such deals have included Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada and most recently, Manulife Financial Corp., giving these large institutions more sway over their sectors.

While the highest-profile deals are subject to scrutiny in Ottawa – sometimes from both the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, which studies the deal and then makes a recommendation to the federal finance department – very little is said publicly when the final approvals are granted.

In his first press conference since being named the new Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Jeremy Rudin offered some clarity as to why OSFI hasn't been fazed by the consolidation – despite the regulator's obsession with risk.

"I don't see that these transactions, as significant as they are, have made a material change to the risk profile of the institutions," he said, referring to the banking takeovers. "We started out with six domestic systemically important banks; we [still] have six 'D-SIBS.'"

To put that in layman's terms, Canada's banking oligopoly already held so much power, and tacking on the Canadian arms of Ally and ING, or the domestic retail brokerage of HSBC Holdings PLC hasn't really rocked the boat.

Mr. Rudin said the same line of thinking applies to insurers. "If this deal [Manulife's $4-billion acquisition of Standard Life's Canadian business] closes, we'll have a similarly concentrated life insurance sector."

A little more market share can't hurt, can it?

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 18/03/24 3:49pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
ALLY-N
Ally Financial
+0.96%37.98
BNS-N
Bank of Nova Scotia
-0.22%49.69
BNS-T
Bank of Nova Scotia
-0.24%67.28
C-N
Citigroup Inc
+1.77%58.63
FC-N
Franklin Covey Company
+0.69%39.52
FISI-Q
Financial Institut
-1.57%18.22
HSBC-N
HSBC Holdings Plc ADR
+0.55%38.42
ING-N
ING Groep N.V. ADR
+1.43%15.57
MFC-N
Manulife Financial Corp
-0.33%24.07
MFC-T
Manulife Fin
-0.21%32.6
NA-T
National Bank of Canada
+1.06%111.39
NS-N
Nustar Energy LP
+0.77%23.59
RY-N
Royal Bank of Canada
-0.07%99.27
RY-T
Royal Bank of Canada
-0.22%134.34
S-N
Sentinelone Inc Cl A
+4.84%23.16
S-T
Sherritt Intl Rv
+1.72%0.295
Y-T
Yellow Pages Ltd
0%10

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