Related Information:

Financial Services & e-Commerce Fact Sheet

Contact:

David Findlay
Director, ICT
1 416 673 6677

The Toronto Region is a global leader in Financial Services and e-Commerce  

The Toronto Region is...

• A world-leading economic region:
  • Ranked #1 for the soundness of its banking system by World Economic Forum (Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009)
  • Ranked #3 in North America by MasterCard's Worldwide Centres of Commerce (2008)
  • Ranked #3 financial centre in North America by Global Financial Centres Index (2011) and tied for #10 globally
  • Ranked #10 most economically powerful city by Forbes.com (July 2008)
• The third largest concentration of financial services in North America (after New York and Chicago), and the Business and Financial capital of Canada:
  • Headquarters for five largest domestic banks: Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank Financial Group and Toronto Dominion Financial Group (Europe and USA); Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (Caribbean and USA); Scotiabank (Latin America and Asia)
  • Headquarters for six top insurance companies, including two global companies among the top 10: #4 Manulife Financial and #10 Sun Life Financial Services (Financial Times Global Ranking)
  • A range of financial services: 41 foreign bank subsidiaries and branches, 119 securities firms, 61 mutual fund companies
  • An international leader in pension management - 58 pension fund managers and five of Canada's largest public pension plans with combined assets over $250 billion
• Location of the TMX Group, North America's third largest equity exchange and seventh largest in the world based on market capitalization:
  • Home to a large and highly-skilled financial services workforce of roughly 233,000 in 2008
• Canada's largest education centre with 340 university and college programs in business and commerce that produce a highly-educated and highly-skilled workforce: 7,100 university graduates (all levels) from business and commerce programs in 2006
• A growing hub of more than 100 companies that provide e-commerce and IT security products and services, including industry leaders such as: Algorithmics, Certicom Co., Cisco Systems Canada, Digital Cement, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) Systems Canada, IBM Canada , McAfee Canada, Microsoft Canada, Moneris,Open Text Corporation, SAP Canada, Symantec Canada, Symcor, Teranet, and Thomson Reuters
  
  

"Canada's financial system is mature, sophisticated, and well-managed. Financial stability is underpinned by sound macroeconomic policies and strong, prudential regulation and supervision…The five large banking groups that form the core of the system are conservatively managed and highly profitable."   
                                                                                - IMF 2008 Financial Stability Report

 
World-leading Research and Education

• Toronto Region universities are a centre of research excellence:
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) awarded $9.6 million in funding for finance, insurance,economics and e-commerce related studies, 1998-2007
  • 45% of Canada Research Chairs related to business, finance, economics and insurance are located in the Toronto Region
• University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo rank among the top 10 Canadian publishers on finance,economics and e-commerce related articles
• The Toronto Region is a centre of academic institutions dedicated to business, finance and economic related research:
  • McMaster University: McMaster eBusiness Research Centre (MeRC) and Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics & Population Degroote School of business
  • Ryerson University: Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity, Ted Rogers School of Management
  • University of Toronto: Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences Capital Markets Institute, Centre for Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship, Clarkson Centre for Business Effectiveness and Board
    Effectiveness, Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, Institute for Corporate Directors, Institute for Canadian Pension Management, and Rotman School of Management
  • University of Waterloo: Centre for Advanced Studies in Finance, Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology, Institute for Innovation Research, Institute for Quantitative Finance and Insurance, Institute of Insurance and Pension Research (IIPR), Deloitte Centre for Tax Education and Research, and University of Waterloo Centre for Information System Assurance (UWCISA)
    Wilfrid Laurier University: CMA Canada Centre of Excellence in Management Accounting for SMEs, Financial Services Research Centre, and Laurier Centre for Economic Policy
  • York University: Schulich School of Business
• Innovative and specialized programs offered by the industry training associations located in Toronto such as: CSI Global Inc (The Canadian Securities Institute, Institute of Canadian Bankers, etc), Financial Standards Planning Council, Insurance Institute of Ontario, Toronto International Leadership Centre, Toronto CFA Society, and IFSE Institute (a distance learning education institute wholly owned by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC)
  
  

"…Toronto has one of the most vibrant financial services clusters in North America. [There are] strong and successful Canadian firms in each area of the cluster - banking, insurance, investments, securities dealers, and risk capital. {Canadian} banks are world-leaders in shareholder returns. Canadian life insurance firms are among global leaders in market capitalization."   
                                               - Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity, June 2007