International Banks Squeeze on Canadian Non Bank ABCP Owners?
Did international banks attempt to extort $60 billion from the Quebec Caisse Pension Fund and the Alberta, Ontario and Federal Governments? Public money ultimately provided $5 billion of emergency funding in Dec. 2008, in order to bring the ABCP Restructuring Plan to a close. Canadian bankruptcy laws were changed after the Non Bank ABCP market froze, giving international banks undue bargaining power in the ABCP restructuring process.
The speaker will explain that Canadian banks were spared liability for their wholly owned investment dealer’s distribution of the toxic ABCP. Court-sanctioned legal release removed the ABCP owners’’ right to sue for damages caused by the banks alleged negligence and fraud in the design and distribution of ABCP. Canadian bank regulations permitted use of a market disruption clause in the liquidity agreements that allowed international banks to walk away from their obligations to repurchase the ABCP from the Canadian investors.
It will further be argued that Canadian securities regulators permitted the toxic ABCP into the public markets and how such regulators continue to provide minimal inspections of investment products. Unless banks, investment dealers and credit rating agencies are held responsible for the delivery of toxic investment products on inflated credit ratings, they will continue to deliver such products into the marketplace.
Speaker: Diane Urquhart
Diane Urquhart is a top-ranked independent financial services analyst with over 30 years experience in the investment field. She was head of equity research at a predecessor of BMO Nesbitt Burns and Scotia Capital Markets. Diane will speak from her experience as the financial advisor, appointed by Justice Colin Campbell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to advise the retail ABCP owners. Ms. Urquhart and legal counsel, Henry Juroviesky, succeeded in obtaining, for individuals owning less than $1 million of the toxic ABCP, a full cash settlement from their investment dealers.