December 08, 2009

Canada should be wary of following other countries into over-regulating its banking industry, the head of the country’s main banking lobby group said.Nancy Hughes Anthony, president of the Canadian Bankers Association, said in Ottawa today that policy makers must limit regulatory changes that threaten the industry’s “competitive advantage.” She singled out Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s decision to stop banks from promoting insurance products on their Web sites.

“We must not allow ourselves to get caught up in a wave of regulation mania - to change what we do because the other guy is changing what he does,” said Hughes Anthony, in the prepared text of her speech. “Let’s remember how well our system works and how good we really are.”Lawmakers around the world are redesigning financial systems in the wake of the worst financial crisis in a generation that forced governments to spend more than $500 billion in the past year bailing out banks.