While the Department of Finance has not undertaken analysis into the specific question raised, we do conduct regular ongoing monitoring of the performance of Canada’s banks. The department also keeps abreast of the economic literature examining consolidation issues in the financial services sector. In 2000 the department participated in an initiative involving the G-10 group of countries looking at many aspects of consolidation. The final report entitled “Consolidation in the Financial Sector” is available at www.bis.org. Building on that analysis, officials from the Department of Finance, the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, and the Bank of Italy released a paper in the Finance and Economics Discussion Series of the Federal Reserve Board of Washington entitled “Consolidation and Efficiency in the Financial Sector: A Review of the International Evidence”. The paper can be found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2002/200247/200247pap.pdf.
In the House of Commons on May 5th, 2003. See this statement in context.