No More Bank Bailouts
22 Apr 2022The bailing out of Canadian banks during and shortly after the bank crisis by the government may have shored up some banks, but at a huge cost. We don’t think that banks should be allowed to profit from risky behaviour. We must draw a line under the ‘too big to fail culture’ and resolve that the Canadian taxpayer is no longer required to prop-up incompetent or overstretched banks. There should be no more ‘bankers’ bailouts.
The government should still guarantee the deposits of savers at high street banks via an insurance scheme, but
the focus of any intervention must be the banks’ customers, not the banks themselves or their shareholders. To make it less likely that retail banks become insolvent, we will propose limitations on their activities and introduce personal liability for their directors, as well as encouraging shareholders in promoting safe practices.