Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, reported a 7.5% increase in net earnings in 2009, resulting in the second highest annual profit in the institution’s history.
Despite the economic downturn, net earnings rose to $50.3 million from $46.8 million on revenue of $75.1 million, which fell slightly from $75.6 million.
Much of the profit gains were made from [...]

Retired Canadians are living a far more comfortable retirement than their American counterparts, according to a North American study by TD Canada Trust.
The survey found that close to 70% of Canadian retirees say their retirement is exactly or mostly what they were expected. In contrast, only 47% of Americans said the same thing. About 25% [...]

Canadians are sticking to when they want to retire despite fears about whether they have enough saved, according to a pair of surveys released Thursday.
A Scotiabank survey found that 73% of Canadian investors have not changed the age they plan to retire, despite the volatile markets and economic roller-coaster during the past two years.
The average [...]

The RRSP season is clearly heating up.
With the March 1 contribution deadline for registered retirement savings plans less than a month away, three of Canada’s big banks released surveys on Thursday, not-so-gently reminding Canadians of the pressing need to start saving for their golden years right now.
A Bank of Nova Scotia study found that 73 [...]

British Columbians and Atlantic Canadians are among the most concerned about their personal debt levels, according to RBC’s January Canadian consumer outlook report.
About two-thirds of British Columbians and a similar proportion of Atlantic Canadians worry about their debt, higher than the national average of 58%. Only 13% say their personal financial situation is better than [...]

Despite claims to the contrary, real estate prices for Olympic host cities don’t experience a boom and bust cycle, according to a study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
The UBC study is the first to use real estate variables to test an Olympic Games’ economic impact on host cities. Researchers analyzed [...]

Stock markets all over the world, including in Canada, were taking some lumps Wednesday as an array of economic news and data came in negative.
At midday, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down about 135 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 11,630. Materials and energy stocks were among the biggest decliners.
One the main [...]

Vancouver-headquartered Telus Corp has sold its debit and credit card processing business to Quebec-based CT-Payment Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
The business unit offers custom payment solutions and supports transactions from all major credit cards and private-label travel, entertainment and fleet cards.
Click here to read the full article on the Business in Vancouver web site.

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The Bank of Canada warned Thursday that growing household debt is now the biggest risk to the country’s financial system, and repeated a plea for borrowers and lenders to remember that the current era of superlow interest rates won’t last.
While saying market conditions and the global economy have improved, and that Canada’s exposure to a [...]

Just in time for the holiday season, Chapters.Indigo.ca, and Roots.com are some of the latest online retailers to begin offering INTERAC Online, a payment service that allows Internet shoppers to pay for goods or services directly from their bank accounts.
From books and music, to games and electronics, to clothing and accessories, and even groceries and [...]

Western Canadian shoppers enjoy holiday shopping the least and plan to spend less this year, according to Maritz Research’s annual holiday shopping poll.
Only 16% of Western Canadians said they enjoyed holiday shopping, less than Quebeckers (17%), Atlantic Canadians (18%) and Ontarians (19%). Coincidentally, the survey found that the majority (56%) of Western Canadians have not [...]

Credit 1 Credit Union, the provider of wholesale services to credit unions in B.C. and Ontario, reported a stronger third quarter in 2009.
Higher financial income and a positive change in the fair value of its financial investments were cited as the reason.
It reported third quarter net income of $35.5 million compared with a loss of [...]

Young, first-time home buyers are opting for older homes as a more affordable first step to home ownership, according to a TD Canada Trust survey released Monday.
Almost half of first-time home owners aged 18 to 34 bought a house that was at least 21 years old, compared with only 27% of home owners aged 55 [...]

British Columbia bucked the national inflation trend in October by recording a fifth consecutive decline in the consumer price index (CPI), according to Statistics Canada data released Wednesday.
B.C.’s CPI fell 0.6% following a 1.2% decline in September. Nationally, the CPI rose 0.1% in October following a 0.9% decline in September.
B.C. was the largest province to [...]

The current “jumble” of supplemental pension options is failing millions of Canadian workers and must be revamped into a coherent system that will allow them to build better retirement nest eggs, says Keith Ambachtsheer, one of the country’s leading authorities on pensions.
Ambachtsheer, director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management at the University of [...]