Visa and Mastercard control approximately 87% of US credit card purchase volume, processing $10.7 trillion in combined US transactions annually. This dominance has persisted for decades, but a convergence of regulatory action, vertical integration by competitors, alternative payment rails, and technology gatekeepers is creating the most significant structural pressure the duopoly has faced.

U.S. banking, payments, AI & financial services events 2026 with links to each event web site.

A summary of bank events, payment events, AI, data and analytics in Canada.

This report examines key financial metrics for Canada's six largest banks — BMO, BNS, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, and TD — using regulatory data filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) for the period ending 2021-12-31 through 2025-12-31. The analysis focuses on how the Bank of Canada's rapid rate-hiking cycle affected funding costs, asset yields, margins, profitability, and capital adequacy across these institutions.

Canadian banks, apart from the Big 5, have generally avoided foreign diversification. All of the Big 5 have a significant foreign presence, however, RBC’s massive diversifactation ($1.86T foreign assets, 37% revenue) eclipses its rivals. Whereas, National Bank has also proven highly competitive, despite its domestic focus.

Methodology

This document looks at 4 categories of Canadian banks via charts. The charts are derived from OSFI data which provides details with respect to foreign operations held by Canada’s domestic banks. I have categorized them as Small/Medium, Mid-Tier, Large and Big 5.

This report is a scorecard I designed in order to rank the performance of the current Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau. I do regular rankings because, otherwise, I cannot measure the performance in a meaningful way. The scoring is based on a variety of metrics as detailed on the ‘score-table’ on page 3. Examples of the criteria and weighting include:

Flood aftermath is linked to post traumatic stress. Here are some findings from a study conducted by Queensland University following a flood:

"The findings showed that aftermath stress contributed to poor mental health outcomes over and above the flood itself, prior mental health issues and demographic factors," Ms Dixon said.

"Aftermath stress was the strongest predictor of post-traumatic stress symptoms with 75 per cent of people saying the most difficult aspect was the aftermath and dealing with insurance companies," she said.

With this in mind, I felt it was important to understand how New Brunswick flood victims were treated.

Argentina is in the news daily because the situation is dire, and may be an indication of further contagion. The most dramatic story that speaks of the a leading cause of its troubles was the recent arrest of the public works secretary, Jose Lopez. June 15th he was caught hiding millions in cash in a monastery. No this is not a plot for a comedy.

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