It's difficult to garner public sympathy when you are a coddled industry earning record billions in profits while eliminating thousands of staff and charging consumers ever-increasing fees. But Canada's big six banks are doing their best. The big six argue that the public should be grateful for the contributions that record bank profits bring, since banks pay their workers, suppliers, shareholders and taxes, and donate to charities. But since most other large businesses in Canada also do these things, this argument only serves to shift attention away from the issue of bank accountability.
Banks rely heavily on the public and government.
With this reliance on the public purse comes responsibility, and Canadians have a right to know more about what banks are doing with depositors' money. While we know how much more money banks made on fees this year, we know little about how much it costs them to provide various services. Some commentators have suggested that banks charge customers 30 times the actual cost for some services. If true, customers may be charged 60 cents for a transaction that only costs the bank two cents, resulting in an enormous profit margin for the bank. The question of profit margins is key to determining if banks are gouging consumers in order to subsidize speculative ventures that are of little benefit to the Canadian economy.