GATINEAU (Québec), Competition Bureau
The Competition Bureau is pleased to publish its submission in response to the Department of Finance Canada's public consultation on strengthening competition in the financial sector.
Concerns around affordability and Canada's productivity performance have brought a renewed focus on the critical role of competition in the Canadian economy. The need to strengthen competition is especially important in the financial sector, where borrowing costs have rapidly increased to their highest levels in a generation.
This submission answers Finance's key questions about bank mergers, market concentration, and public reporting on concentration and competition in Canada's banking sector.
It also makes two recommendations to lower switching costs for consumers and meaningfully advance competition. Notably, the Bureau:
- encourages Finance to swiftly adopt a consumer-driven banking framework that will boost competition and innovation by challenging established providers and enabling new service providers; and
- urges policymakers to reconsider the application of the stress test at mortgage renewal for uninsured borrowers, to allow them to switch lenders and benefit from competition.
The Bureau urges policymakers to prioritize and actively nurture competition in the financial sector and welcomes the federal government's commitment to deliver consumer-driven banking to Canadians by 2025.
