Unit 3-7 Banking in Canada

Banking in Canada is widely considered the most efficient and safest banking system in the world,ranking as the world's soundest banking system for the past three years according to reports by the World Economic Forum. Released at October 2010, Global Finance magazine put Royal Bank of Canada at number 10 among the world's safest bank and Toronto-Dominion Bank at number 15.According to the Department of Finance, Canada’s banks, also called chartered banks, have over 8,000 branches and almost 18,000 automated banking machines (ABMs) across the country. In addition, "Canada has the highest number of ABMs per capita in the world and benefits from the highest penetration levels of electronic channels such as debit cards, Internet banking and telephone banking".

Banking in Germany

Banking in Germany has a long history. From the 15th century, banking families such as Fugger, Welser and Hochstetter were international mercantile bankers and venture capitalists. The oldest bank still in existence in Germany, Berenberg Bank, was founded by Dutch brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg in 1590, and is still owned by the Berenberg family.

Germany has universal banking.The private customer mostly has to choose between two kind of banks: (A) private banks, and (B) cooperative banks and public banks. Postbank, Deutsche Bank, HypoVereinsbank, Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank (which was acquired by Commerzbank in 2008) - which cooperate together as the Cash Group - are found almost everywhere, and are exclusive in smaller villages. Principal banks include: Sparkasse and Volksbank.

ATM (Geldautomat) are on nearly every corner. However, customers mostly have to use their bank's ATM with their debit card if they don't want to pay a fee. Cash Group offers free ATM through the group. Using a credit card (Visa/Mastercard/Diners Club/American Express) from a German bank in any German ATM generates a fee of about 3%. Most people prefer to use their EC/Maestro debit card. Many physical payments are still made in cash, but increasingly, Germans are using their EC/Maestro. Online payments are done mostly either with direct debit (Lastschrift) or with credit card.

Most of the banks offer a free main account (Girokonto) as long as the customer deposits a minimum amount regularly (> 1000€ income each month). Online banks such as ING Diba or comdirect offer cheaper service and free credit cards.

Banking in Austria

The Austrian National Bank (Österreichische Nationalbank), originally opened on January 2, 1923 but taken over by the German Reichsbank in 1938, was reestablished on July 3, 1945. The bank is a corporation with capital shares fixed by law at $150 million; 50% of the shares are, by law, owned by the government. The central bank and the bank of issue, it preserves the domestic purchasing power of the Austrian currency and its value in terms of stable foreign currencies, and controls external transactions affecting the balance of payments.

The Austrian banking system also includes joint-stock banks, banking houses, and private banks, as well as postal savings banks, private savings banks, mortgage banks, building societies, and specialized cooperative credit institutions. The most important credit institutions are the joint-stock commercial banks, the two largest of which, the Creditanstalt-Bankverein and the Österreichische Länderbank, were nationalized in 1946; shares representing 40% of the nominal capital of the two were sold to the public in 1957.

On January 12, 1997, the coalition partners, after long and intensive negotiations, agreed to sell Credit and staff-Bankverein to the indirectly state-owned Bank Austria, which is dominated by the senior coalition party, the Social Democratic Party (SPO). The sale created a financial and industrial giant in Austria, which holds about one-quarter of the assets of all financial institutions.