Abstract

Domestic Canadian banking is based on the U.K. model: a small number of relatively large banks. The six big banks have combined assets of about $600 billion Canadian and over 7,500 branches and 10,000 automatic teller machines in about 1,700 communities throughout Canada. There are about 35 million personal savings accounts. Only one of the Canadian banks appears in the list of the world’s 50 biggest banks, but that makes it very big relative to most Canadian businesses. The banks are very influential in the Canadian economy.