Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Canadian Banks' Profits In Fiscal 2015 Work Out To $4 Million An Hour

TORONTO — Canada's six biggest banks saw their profits climb higher over the past year, despite concerns that the sluggish economy, a slowdown in consumer borrowing and rock-bottom interest rates would take a bite out of their books.

Combined, the six largest lenders — Royal Bank, TD Bank, Scotiabank, the Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank — earned $34.88 billion in net income during fiscal 2015, up almost five per cent from $33.27 billion last year.

By HuffPost Canada's calculations, that works out to nearly $4 million in profit for every hour of every day — $3.98 million per hour, to be precise.

In revenue, the banks raked in a combined $129.79 billion during the past year, up from $124.72 billion in 2014.

Banking analysts have been warning since late last year that the sharp decline in the price of crude could lead to higher loan losses for the banks as oilpatch companies and laid-off workers may struggle to repay their debts.

Concerns have also been swirling that lending growth will slow as overburdened Canadians are becoming hesitant to take on more debt.

Nonetheless, the banks have continued to report strong, and in some cases record-high, results.

During Royal Bank's fourth-quarter conference call Wednesday, CEO David McKay said the bank's $10.03 billion in net income for the year marks a new record for Canadian companies.

For the quarter, the six banks had $8.61 billion in collective profits, up from $7.73 billion during the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter totalled $32.06 billion, up from $30.80 billion a year ago.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author:  Alexandra Posakzi

No comments:

Post a Comment