Four divisions of Bank of Montreal will repay almost $50-million to 60,393 clients who were overcharged on their fee-based accounts and on mutual-fund costs for eight years between 2008 and 2016.
The Ontario Securities Commission's settlement deal unveiled Thursday with the BMO units is the sixth no-contest settlement the regulator has reached with financial institutions over the past two years related to repayments of excess fees, resulting in $320-million in compensation returned to clients.
As in prior cases, BMO self-reported the fee problems to the OSC after undertaking an internal review of its systems amid a spate of OSC investigations into similar problems at other institutions. Story
Rise of non-bank lenders poses risk, BoC says
Canada's growing industry of non-bank mortgage lenders has helped fuel an abundance of cheap housing debt, but has also made the country's financial system more vulnerable in the event of a real estate correction, the Bank of Canada warns.
In a report that accompanied the central bank's December Financial System Review, policy makers found that less-regulated mortgage finance companies have become an increasingly important player in the country's housing market. The central bank estimates that, by the end of last year, the four largest mortgage finance companies alone accounted for $165-billion in outstanding mortgage loans, roughly 12 per cent of the total market. Story
DAILY DEALS
It took six months of talks between Athabasca Oil Corp. and Statoil ASA to finalize the sale of the Norwegian oil giant's Canadian thermal oil-sands assets. But the terms of the deal, worth up to $832-million, indicate that Statoil was in a hurry to exit northern Alberta. Story
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Tim Kiladze on executive pay in the mining industry. Story
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