A coalition of Toronto’s major financial institutions, industry associations and federal, provincial and municipal governments Wednesday released a report that sets out a strategy for making Toronto a leading global financial centre by 2015.

The report, which was prepared by the Boston Consulting Group for the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, sets out nine areas for action that it argues could turn Toronto into one of the world’s top five financial centres in the next five years; thereby creating jobs, boosting GDP and attracting investment.

Its priorities for reaching this goal, include:

• establishing a global institute for risk management;
• promoting the city’s position as the leading global hub for mining, metals, and energy financing and trading;
• becoming a leader in retirement financing solutions; and,
• promoting the region’s other benefits, such as access to skilled talent, quality of life, language diversity, proximity to U.S. markets, ease of international access, and strong technology and communications sectors.

The report notes that there are a few notable gaps in Toronto’s competitive attributes compared to other major international financial centres.

“While there are several major financial services companies based in the region, the city lacks global profile that comes with being recognized as a world-leader in any specific area. In addition, in other major international financial centres, governments and financial services industry leaders have worked hand-in-hand with a purposeful strategy and mandate to set conditions for the industry to thrive; that shared purpose and spirit of partnership between government and industry has been lacking for the Toronto financial services industry,” it says.

Enhancing the city’s global competitiveness “will require a focused strategy targeted both at leveraging our strengths and addressing the gaps”, it says.

For example, to improve Toronto’s role as a source of retirement financing, the report calls for the creation of a public-private partnership to develop a set of recommendations, policy proposals and action plans, around how to better optimize use of personal savings/insurance, and enhance efficiency and effectiveness of private registered pension plans. And, it says that Toronto should continue to be developed as a centre of pension management expertise, “particularly through continued support of the Rotman School of Management’s International Centre for Pension Management”.

The report calls on government to play an active role in supporting the industry’s growth by:

• developing a dedicated function within governments to work with the industry to resolve issues and facilitate growth;
• developing a government-industry partnership body to drive the financial services strategy; and
• actively marketing and promoting the Toronto region and its’ financial services sector.

Additionally, it suggests that the environment for business should be enhanced by addressing “specific rules and regulations that impede financial services growth”, but also by improving the city’s transit infrastructure, particularly high-speed transit options between Pearson airport and the downtown core. And it says that the industry must continue to invest in and grow the talent base.

To implement the strategy, the report calls for the creation of a new group comprised of top Toronto-based financial services CEOs as well as senior representatives from each of the three levels of government to drive the agenda.

“Translating the themes for action into results needs to be a priority of the financial services industry and all three orders of government. It will take leadership, resources and focus. It will require political will from the most senior elected officials to make this initiative a top priority. It will require the collective vision and belief of industry leaders to align efforts and resources. There is considerable support at this time within the industry and all orders of government in carrying this initiative forward. It is imperative that support is turned into action so that good intentions yield real results,” the report says.

The working group is co-chaired by Don Drummond, chief economist at TD Bank Financial Group, and Janet Ecker, president, Toronto Financial Services Alliance.

IE