engineeringeddie

U.S. vs. Canada: Banking Edition

The Canadian real estate asset bubble has not popped appreciably, but the banks here aren't too terribly exposed. The federal government's mortgage insurance agency (CMHC) carries the underwriting risk on residential real estate to the tune of $680-plus billion with an insanely high leverage ratio on actual assets. I also believe that Canadian banks had much lower mark-to-market pressures which allowed them to largely side step the credit/financial crisis.