Canada's banks push for fair playing field in pension reform

This article is from the Vancouver sun newspaper. To read the entire article, click on the above title.
___________________________________________

OTTAWA —  Canada's banks are warning federal and provincial governments against creating any new supplementary pension plans that would give them an edge over their private-sector competitors.
The Canadian Bankers Association says any public or quasi-public plans should have no regulatory, legislative or "artificial cost" advantage over the retirement-savings vehicles offered by the financial-services sector.

"There should be no reputational advantage to such plans," the association said.
"They should not enjoy any implicit or explicit government seal of approval and it must be made clear that the government is not providing any guarantees with respect to portfolio balances, rate of return or income stream," it added.

The association made clear in a brief to the federal government that it takes a dim view of proposals to establish one or more pension plans to supplement the Canada Pension Plan as a means of encouraging Canadians to save more for retirement.

Instead, the association calls for strengthening retirement savings through the private sector by, among other things, revising federal regulations to allow multi-employer pension plans.