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🏦 The banks can’t do everything
A new report by SCP Policy Manager Michelle Arnold, Built to Exclude: Why Canada's enterprises need a different kind of financing.
New research on the Big Banks and the businesses left behind
The productivity, resilience, inclusive growth and economic sovereignty objectives Canada is trying to achieve are not independent of its financing system. Canada ranks second-worst in the G7 as a place to be an entrepreneur, with 55 per cent of small-business owners saying they would not recommend starting a business here right now.
Built to Exclude: Why Canada’s enterprises need a different kind of financing
Canada's enterprise financing system is dominated by big banks that control 93% of banking assets and nearly 80% of SME lending. While stable and respected, they have structural constraints—minimum deal sizes, rigid credit models, collateral requirements—that systematically stop them from lending to a range of viable businesses.