The Porter Commission on Canadian banking and finance

Abstract

Appointment in 1960 of the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance, now known as the Porter Commission, was precipitated by a growing dissatisfaction with the performance of the Canadian economy during the late 1950s when the rate of economic growth was among the slowest of western economies. The Report of the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance, representing over two years of study by the Commission, makes a diversity of recommendations toward improvement of the workings of the Canadian financial system. The present article reviews three issues that played important roles in the Report and are likely to arouse controversy: government intervention in financial markets; the commission’s views on economic policy;

competition between financial institutions. In the overall assessment, the author concludes that the Report represents a sound beginning for revision of the Bank Act.

JEL: G21, G28