Financial District : In The News

7 Canadian banks have made Global Finance Magazine's " 20th Annual Ranking of the World’s 50 Safest Banks". Royal Bank (number 11 on the list) and TD Canada Trust (number 13) were the highest rated Canadian banks in a list that evaluates financial institutions based on long-term credit ratings.

"With more than 40 of the top 50 banks from last year once again making the list, the Global Finance ranking shows that most of the top echelon of banks are truly worthy of the moniker World’s Safest Bank. Winners were selected through an evaluation of long-term credit ratings—from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch—and total assets of the 500 largest banks worldwide."
 
"Global Finance’s annual ranking of World’s 50 Safest Banks is a recognized and trusted standard of creditworthiness for the entire financial world. “Counterparty creditworthiness is a critical issue for companies and investors worldwide,” says Global Finance publisher Joseph D. Giarraputo. “More than ever, companies around the world are reevaluating the long-term credit strength of their banks, and partnering with only those banks that have proven strength and stability.”
 
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original source Global Finance

Toronto is now one of the world's top ten global financial centres according to the annual Global Financial Centre's Index (GFCI), published last week by London-based think-tank, Z-Yen. Canada's largest city has consistently ranked in the top 15, but this year marks the first time Toronto cracked the top 10, tying for 10th position with Sydney, Australia.  As reported by Business Standard, in another first, Toronto also ranked in the top 10 for each of the six industry sub-indices including asset management, banking, insurance and wealth management.

"We are encouraged that Toronto has continued to gain momentum and global recognition as a leader in financial services," said Janet Ecker, president, Toronto Financial Services Alliance."

"We recognize, however, that many countries around the world are competing fiercely to attract financial services business to their shores and that we have to continue to work intensely to sustain our leadership."

"Half of the cities on the short list are separated by fewer than 25 points on a 1000-point rating scale. London, New York and Hong Kong maintained their top three positions."

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original source Business Standard

The Ritz-Carlton Toronto, the new 267 room luxury hotel on Wellington Street, has officially opened its doors to the public. In order to give international travelers a peak inside too, the Ritz-Carleton has created a virtual tour of the opulent hotel. The video can be watched in full on the hotel's Facebook page and on Business Traveller.com

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original source Business Traveller

The Globe & Mail writes on Tiffinday, a new Toronto business that a offers lunchtime-only meal delivery service. Entrepreneur Seema Pabari launched her business in June 2010, delivering home cooked Indian lunches to busy Toronto office workers, she now works with two chefs and serves over 100 customers daily.

"My typical customer, which blew me away, is the young, white male working in IT, law and finance," Ms. Pabari said. "They just want good, healthy food delivered to them."

"While it speaks to the growing diversity of Canadian tastes, Tiffinday is also an example of an opportunity for entrepreneurs � businesses inspired by foreign traditions, products or services that could flourish if adapted and launched here."

"Ms. Pabari's inspiration for Tiffinday was rooted in Mumbai, where the tiffin tradition is a mainstay of that city's busy office culture. The service is known for its affordability, reusable packaging, and the dabbawalahs who deliver the meals and retrieve the tiffin boxes afterward."

"The North American palate is more diverse today than ever, said Dr. Dahl, which helps companies like Ms. Pabari's. "[Tiffinday] is going to hit a number of sweet spots. It's not surprising that it's taken off; you can import the concept that works over in India and because there are similar conditions it works over here, too," he said."

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original source Globe & Mail

Urban Toronto looks back at the most notable new buildings of 2010. One Bloor, the Queen Richmond Centre West, and the Bisha Hotel & Residences are among the buildings that transformed Toronto's architectural landscape over the past year.

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original source Urban Toronto

Business Traveller writes on the upcoming opening of the Ritz-Carlton Toronto. Scheduled to open this February, the 53-floor 267-room property caters to locals and tourists, offering hotel suites and private residences.

"Luxury hotel group Ritz-Carlton is to open a 267-room property in Toronto in February."

"Housed in a new 53-floor tower on Wellington Street, between the city's financial and entertainment districts, the hotel will take up the first 20 floors while the remaining levels will be given over to Ritz-Carlton residences."

"Rooms will start from 42 sqm and will be contemporary in d�cor, with floor-to-ceiling windows providing either city or lake views. They will come equipped with 42-inch flatscreen TVs, Bose stereos with an iPod dock, DVD players, and marble bathrooms with a separate tub and rainshower and a TV built into the mirror."

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original source Business Traveller

Business Week reports on Toronto-Dominion Bank's (TD) ongoing expansion into the United States. A combination of strategic growth and emphasis on customer service has put Toronto-based TD on track to become the first Canadian bank to excel south of the border.

"At the main campus of TD University in the Philadelphia suburb of Mount Laurel, N.J., bright green, red, blue, and yellow walls of varying angles brighten dozens of classrooms, complete with mock teller stations and a bank vault. A 400-seat theater hosts everything from pep rallies to air-hockey tournaments. All of Toronto-Dominion Bank's (TD) 24,000 U.S. employees must attend a five-hour training session here or at one of 47 other campuses across the country. "You have to buy 100 percent into our culture," says Fred Graziano, president of U.S. consumer banking for the Toronto-based company. "That's how we start them off and let them know what we stand for."

"The training is a centerpiece of Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark's strategy to export the customer service model that has made his bank the most profitable consumer lender in Canada. If he makes it work, he'll do what most Canadian banks have failed to do: post sustained profit in a market more than four times the size of Canada's."

"The next step will be proving the bank can consistently grow revenue in a marketplace in which the competitive, economic, and regulatory backdrop appears much more difficult than what TD faces at home," says Sumit Malhotra, a bank analyst at Macquarie Capital Markets in Toronto."

"So far, Clark is succeeding. Canada's second-biggest bank recorded C$282 million ($276 million) in U.S. consumer bank earnings in the most recent quarter�a record for the fledgling division and almost a quarter of the company's overall profit of C$1.18 billion. Toronto-Dominion said in June that U.S. operations may have earnings of $1.6 billion a year within three years."


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original source Business Week

The Globe & Mail writes on the vacancy rates in downtown Toronto that have "defied logic". Despite a real-estate slowdown in the rest of the city, office space in Toronto's core remains a sought after-commodity.

"While landlords are struggling to lease space in the rest of the city, demand in Toronto's business core has been so strong that developers are considering building new towers, a sharp shift in sentiment compared to last year when commercial real estate analysts were predicting vacancies could surpass double digits for the first time in a decade."

"Downtown vacancy fell to 5.8 per cent from 6.6. per cent in the past quarter, according to commercial real estate analysts at Cushman & Wakefield, thanks to a "tremendous acceleration" in leasing activity. City-wide, vacancy decreased to 7.7 per cent in the third quarter from 8.1 per cent in the second quarter."

"There is a demand for new product in a way that we haven't seen for 15 years," said Paul Morse, senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield. "I think it is quite realistic that we'll see new development, and those decisions will likely be made in the next six months."

"Downtown Toronto defied logic with its brisk leasing activity and demand growth in the third quarter," Mr. Morse said. "The results go against the grain of many other North American cities that are just beginning to emerge from the grip of the global recession."

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original source Globe & Mail

Toronto is a leader in cleantech organization clusters, according to a list published last week by the Cleantech Group. Toronto organizations MaRS and the Ontario Clean Water Initiative both made the cut on a list that ranks the world's "Top 10 cleantech cluster organizations for 2010". 

"... a cleantech cluster organization as an economic development organization aimed at growing jobs in a specific geographic region. Among a cleantech cluster's main goals are to promote innovation and investment."

"MaRS provides business advice and mentorship, market intelligence, entrepreneurship education, seed capital and access to critical talent, customer and partner networks...."

"The Ontario Clean Water Initiative is a collaboration of organizations dedicated to developing Ontario as a global center of expertise for safe, clean, affordable and sustainable water and sanitation solutions. Ontario has considerable water related assets, from one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world to a strong regulatory regime, an internationally recognized research community, and an established track record in world class water tech (e.g. ZENON, acquired by GE, and Trojan Technologies)."

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original source CleanTech Group

According to the Music Industry News Network Toronto has been chosen to host the Inaugural Digital Strategies Conference, a gathering of music industry insiders focusing on "marketing products and services in the Digital Age". The event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York Hotel, is expected to draw speakers and participants from around the world.

"From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, online marketing is key to business success. Presented by Digital Media Wire, in association with the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Music & the Arts (CAAMA), marketers and business owners will learn how to use the latest e-business tools and make smart investment decisions with limited marketing dollars."

"This full-day event will feature appearances from media executives discussing top digital media and marketing trends. Panellists will highlight how to maximize revenues by leveraging social media communities, online analytic tools, search engine marketing strategies and video platform tools."

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original source Music Industry News Network

An education from Toronto's Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University pays for itself quickly according a survey conducted by the Ted Rogers School of Management. The survey, which tracked graduate salaries and employment rates found that after completing a program that costs approximately $13,000 "students who were employed within six months of graduating earned an average annual salary of $85,327".

"The topic at hand is Ryerson's Master of Business Administration program, which has Brailovski perked even before he's had his coffee."

"It's a much more cost-effective program," he contends, championing the school from which he graduated just two years ago, after which he landed a job at Scotia Bank."

"The Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University is seated in the heart of downtown Toronto, cushioned close to Yonge and Dundas Square. The location was one of the primary factors that drove Brailovski to complete his MBA at Ryerson, but it's the cost-benefit analysis he insists elaborating upon."

"The tuition is comparatively inexpensive to other schools," he says. "The flexible program is of great, great value: a one-year model, for people wanting to jump-start their careers."

"A common threat of any program is putting up the money, time and energy to study, and then not being able to find a job immediately after. The problem has become increasingly prominent in this wavering economy. Though there is an increasing number of students enrolling in MBA programs, there are fewer and fewer jobs as firms cut back. However, Brailovski says the employment rate for Ryerson MBA students is "phenomenal."

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original source Toronto Star

The National Post recently ran a feature on Toronto entrepreneur Som Seif. The Canadian president and CEO of Claymore Investments in Canada, Seif is credited with building the company, (a subsidiary of Chicago-based money-manager Claymore Group Inc), "into one of the most innovative financial firms on Bay Street".

"[Seif's] core strategy: exploiting investor's appetite for exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, as they're commonly referred to. ETFs - typically baskets of equities and bonds that passively track a benchmark and trade like stocks - account for 95% of the $4.1 billion in assets that Claymore controlled as of the end of November. Although the market is led by Barclays Global Investor division, iShares, Claymore's book still accounts for about 14% of the industry."

"This year alone we've almost tripled our market share in Canada on ETF assets and we're growing quite dramatically in terms of sales flow," Seif says. "We're capturing over 27% of the actual market flow that is going into the Canadian ETF industry right now. That's pretty impressive coming from nothing three years ago."

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original source The National Post

Toronto native David A. Rosenberg, the chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto, provided expert analysis for recent article in the New York Times. Speaking on the economic woes in Greece, Portugal and Spain, Rosenberg offers analysis on the current economic environment while also providing his predictions for the future.

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original source New York Times

The financial crisis hit the global banking hubs of New York and London hard, emboldening other financial centres that are gunning to become world leaders, reports Entrepreneur. The magazine named Toronto, traditionally focused more on Canada, among the top emerging global financial centres.

"According to the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, it's the third largest North American financial services center after New York and Chicago, based on direct employment, and the fastest growing. It's also the hub for Canada's banks, securities firms, insurers and mutual funds."

click here to read the Entrepreneur Magazine article