U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that U.S. banks are not allowed to do business in Canada, while their banks operate in the U.S.

“Canada doesn’t allow American Banks to do business in Canada, but their banks flood the American Market. Oh, that seems fair to me, doesn’t it?” Trump wrote in a social media post

CNN and others debunked Trump’s claim a month ago.

“There’s nothing prohibiting American banks from operating here, including having retail branches,” Cristie Ford, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s law school, said in an email in February.

Canada tightly regulates the banking industry, and it requires various government approvals before a foreign-owned bank can open in the country. But U.S. banks have been operating in Canada for well over a century; the Canadian Bankers Association, an industry group, said in a February statement that “there are 16 U.S.-based bank subsidiaries and branches with around C$113 billion in assets currently operating in Canada” and that “U.S. banks now make up approximately half of all foreign bank assets in Canada.”

Tyler Meredith, former head of economic and fiscal policy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, noted on social media in February that Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan, and Northern Trust are among the U.S. banks with current Canadian operations. You can see the others here and here.

Meredith said in an interview that “we take a very careful look at people who want to come into our banking sector, because we consider financial services to be a core asset to Canada and to the Canadian economy” and try hard to avoid the “cascading consequences” the world has seen with bank failures in the U.S

  • @NarrativeBearOP
    2•2 days ago

    Does this mean you and I should stop shopping at stores like Walmart or Costco, The Bay, Home Depot, Lowe’s?

    Or can we still shop at Walmart but only buy Canadian items?

    SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust owns the land that Walmart’s operate on. They are Canadian owned and generate revenue from rent.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•2 days ago

      There’s not really a “should” here, necessarily. I think we all need to do what we reasonably can. What you’re saying is true and important to remember, and a reflection of how intertwined our economies have become, but if this trend of rising tensions continues then all of that might be on the table.

      At some point we may need to graduate from individual action and voting with our wallets to actual state level intervention, like asset seizure and nationalisation of certain companies or industries.

      I’m pushing myself to do the most I can accommodate in my life individually, and I’m fairly well off and can afford to take financial hits in service of this, but not everyone can do that on a personal level. Canadian economic diversity is fairly poor and enriching the same handful of Canadian capitalists isn’t great either, but it’s the lesser evil right now I think.

      Unsurprisingly with a handle like mine I’m down to eventually dismantle capitalism entirely, and at least we’ll be keeping more of our labour surplus in our domestic economy.