Canada Retains Its Ranking as Home to World’s Soundest Banks

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Canada retained its position as home to the world’s soundest banks, the World Economic Forum said today, backing the country’s efforts to trumpet its industry as a model for the world’s largest economies.

 

Canada was number one for the second consecutive year for the indicator, followed by New Zealand and Australia, the Geneva-based organization said in its global competitiveness report. The United States was 108th out of 133 countries for that indicator, one below Tanzania.

 

None of Canada’s 21 banks have sought government funding since credit seized up worldwide in August 2007, prompting Canadian officials to promote the country’s regulatory system and conservative banking culture in forums such as the Group of 20 nations.

 

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in China last month encouraging China’s officials to offer new licenses to Canadian banks and insurers, citing the industry’s relative soundness.

 

Canada sat in 9th spot in overall competitiveness, according to the report, one position higher than last year. The U.S. was displaced by Switzerland as the world’s most- competitive economy.

 

(Courtesy of Bloomberg Media)

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Canada moves up one more place this year to 9th, having joined the top 10 last year. Canada benefits from excellent transport and telephony infrastructure (7th for the infrastructure pillar), highly efficient markets, particularly labor and financial markets (ranked 7th and 11th, respectively), and well-functioning and transparent institutions (17th). In addition, the country has been successful in nurturing its human resources: it is ranked 7th for health and primary education and 9th for higher education and training.This has paved the way for the country’s workforce to adopt the latest technologies for productivity enhancements (ranked 11th). Further, at a time when many industrialized and developing countries alike are struggling with macroeconomic instability, Canada has improved in this area since last year, rising from 43rd to 31st. Continuing to reduce the debt level will be important for ensuring the Canadian govern- ment’s ability to meet its future liabilities and grow sustainably into the future.

 

(Courtesy of World Economic Forum)

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Moody's

1. Canada

2. Singapore

3. Hong Kong

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23. Italy

24. United States

25. Mexico

30. Britain

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94. Iceland

95. Kyrgyzstan

 

Plus the one below is completely different..

 

The Financial Development Report 2009

by World Economic Forum

 

(Courtesy of Korea Times)