From:	XXXX
Sent:	December-09-13 12:03 PM
To:	Consumer Code / Code consommateur
Subject:	Canadian Banking Practices


                                                                                                                                                            
                                                       9 December 2013
To Whom It May Concern,

Recently, I read an article in the Toronto Star regarding the introduction of a new consumer code 
for the banking industry in Canada. It included an invitation for Canadians to comment on their 
experiences with that industry.  My decision to participate has been prompted by the posting of 
record profits by several of the Canadian banks, by published reports of high consumer debt in 
Canada, and by my own experience in the financial crash of 2008 in the United States of 
America.   

My personal opinion is that the banking systems in North America are ignoring their actual 
mandate, impoverishing their clients in order to build profit, not on a healthy economy but on 
hidden subsidies, and that the practices of this "industry" are actually damaging to the Canadian 
economy.  

I am an ordinary person.  I use the banking system as little as feasibly possible simply because I 
don't like to be ripped off. 

These are the things I see wrong with it.
 
1)      1.  Creation of inflation by manipulation of credit terms and conditions including the use of 
"introductory" interest rates as a marketing ploy rather than a firm agreement on the real cost of 
borrowing money from credit lenders.

Every time a credit issuing agency grants credit to an individual they are, in effect,  injecting 
money into the economy and creating inflation by artificially increasing the ability of the 
individual to obtain goods based not on production but on a promise to pay later.  Since money is 
essentially an idea, this increased ability to buy has the same effect as the government 
introducing more real currency into the financial system.   More buying power without 
commensurate production of goods is the essential definition of inflation.  At the same time the 
real wealth or buying power of the individual decreases as more of his actual income earned 
through production is spent satisfying fees and interest on the money borrowed. Money is taken 
out of circulation to satisfy these debts and into the coffers of credit issuing agencies. The 
solution to this deflation is the creation of more virtual money through credit. Credit card 
companies with their marketing schemes actually encourage people to adopt more debt in order 
to satisfy earlier incurred debt. 
 
The end result is more and more "virtual money" injected into the nation's economy with a 
commensurate decrease in the real purchasing power of the individual based on their production 
on a complete bypass of any government regulation of the economy.   Real money in terms of 
earned dollars goes out of circulation to satisfy this "debt".
 
On a personal level, no matter how much money you make, you feel "broke" all the time.  The 
use of credit had an overall demoralizing effect on me and I don't use it anymore.  I do not 
understand why people protest a known taxation rate as provided by the Government of Canada 
yet tolerate the taxation practices of banks and credit card companies.
 
I never thought the US or Canada would see the day when a wheelbarrow of paper money was 
needed to buy a loaf of bread as happened in China, but with credit issuing corporations covertly 
manipulating the amount of "money" in the financial system rampant inflation has actually 
become a real scenario in the West. 
 
I would like to see interest rates regulated and the use of "introductory rates" to encourage the 
use of credit abolished. 
 
2)    2.  The perception of banking as an "industry" which by definition deals in commodity, the 
production and distribution thereof, obfuscates its real purpose to monitor and control the 
financial health of an individual, group or nation.   This is a fundamental mis-definition, which 
has led to usurious interest rates, arbitrary fees and penalties, and financial hardship for 
individuals who are compelled by various means to use this system without any actual control of 
the costs incurred by doing so. 

I saw the tent cities in Riverside County, California, whole tracts of empty, abandoned 
and decaying houses and shopping centers – all the result of a skewed economy, 
questionable lending practices and usurious credit.

I would like the Government of Canada to remind Canadian Banking Corporations of 
their responsibility to their depositors and of their actual responsibilities in the 
maintenance of a healthy Canadian economy.  This does not include dunning their 
depositors with arbitrary fees, and usurious lending practices. 
 
3)    3.  Invalidation of "common" currency as an exchange medium.  
 
This is a perceptual phenomenon.  A $200.00 balance on a debit card does not look, feel or spend 
the same way as twenty ten dollar bills in your wallet.  And there are no hidden fees when you 
deal in cash yet such is continually discouraged for "safety" reasons.  
 
I would like to see a campaign where people are encouraged to use cash to make everyday 
purchases. 
 
4)      4. Nickel and Dime Fees
 
In the mid-eighties someone (and I know his name) had the bright idea of introducing arbitrary 
fees for services offered by banking institutions to their customers which were once simply 
ordinary every day transactions that allowed people to use banks to safeguard their money, and 
gave bankers the  capital necessary to invest in enterprise.  These fees would not amount to 
much, say 1% of any transactions,  and profits were based not on cost or value of service 
delivered but simply on the idea that if you charge a lot of people a little bit of money, you end 
up with a lot of money.  These fees are the most odious aspect of banking today as they act as an 
arbitrary tax on money deposited with a bank.

I would like to see arbitrary banking fees abolished. 
 
5)    5.  Account "packages".  
 
XXXX business packages are the worst and again are based on the idea that if you charge 
a little bit for every transaction you make a whole lot of money.  None of this is based on 
investment in actual enterprise, and precludes this investment by acting as a hidden 
subsidy to the banks.  The stewardship of a nation's wealth should be the mandate of its 
banking system. If all of these fees were eliminated banks would be forced to actually 
serve the community by investing in enterprises that, if worthwhile and able to use 
human industry to generate actual wealth, would serve the nation as well the banks, 
perhaps not as profitably, but more in line with the actual role a bank should have in 
maintaining the financial health of a nation. 

I would like to see less marketing and more service to banking customers given that the 
deposit of funds to a bank in itself through use by the bank of that capital covers the 
costs of banking for the average individual.

6)      Security of personal information  -- 
a.       On line banking
b.      Marketing Purposes of Financial Institutions

I understand fully that when I deposit money into a bank it is no longer my 
money.  The bank is obligated to pay me a like sum should I demand it but once I 
hand over my earnings, it becomes the property of the bank.  This is not a complaint, 
merely a statement of fact.  I consider the same to be true of any personal information 
I give a banking institution no matter the reams of fine print which may or may not 
actually state otherwise.  The valuation of the use of my money by any Canadian 
bank is so low that investing in a bank through a savings account is hardly 
worthwhile.  Banks have so many avenues by which they can increase their bottom 
line simply by moving money from one account to another that the parsimonious 
interest rates offered to ordinary depositors who make up the bulk of a bank's 
investors just seems mean to me. 

I would like banks to be forbidden to collect or use personal information for 
"marketing" purposes. I would like banks to consider my money as valuable to 
them as it is to me.

7)      Domination of  popular culture by banking corporations.  

Does anyone perceive the irony in a "Buskerfest" sponsored by one of the wealthiest 
banking firms in Canada?

I would like to see banks and other corporations contribute to the proliferation of 
Canadian culture anonymously if they wish to do so. No corporation, no matter how 
wealthy, has claim to the creative ability of the people of this nation.

8)      Widening gap between actual and appraised value of real property.  A house was built in 
1956 and sold to its first owner for $15,000.  In 1994 my husband and I saddled ourselves with a 
$180,000 mortgage on that same house.  We sold it in 2002 for $300,000.  The intrinsic value of 
the property did not change – it was still a three bedroom bungalow with an attached garage. It 
was the value of the money that changed.  This inflation is the result of the contemporary 
manipulation of money by banking institutions for their own gain.

I would like to see an economy based on production ability of the people of this country 
rather than on the manipulation of the money supply. 

I distrust the banking "industry" because it does not serve me.

Thank you for inviting me to have my say. 

Sincerely,

XXXX