Depositors’ money would not be used to stabilize a shaky bank in Canada. Instead, banks would be required to rely on their own capital set aside for a rainy day.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Canadians are pouring money into their bank accounts.
Amid all the talk of overly indebted Canadians, the reality is that bank deposit growth is up 8.4 per cent year over year through February. In the month alone, deposits rose 1.2 per cent from January, according to a new report from Barclays analyst John Aiken citing figures from the banking regulator.
That outpaces the growth of 8.2 per cent in personal and residential mortgage loans.
Some of the growth is likely due to Canadians shunning more volatile financial investments and preferring to simply stick their cash where it ought to be safe, Mr. Aiken said.
The other takeaway from Mr. Aiken's hunt through the numbers from Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions is that Bank of Montreal was already on a bit of a roll winning mortgage market share even before launching the low-rate five year mortgage that drew the ire of the federal finance minister. BMO's share of the market for residential insured mortgages (the biggest chunk of mortgages) was up 0.13 per cent in February from January, leading growth among the banks.
(Boyd Erman is a Globe and Mail Reporter & Streetwise Columnist.)
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