Canada’s small business owners are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of allowing bank mergers under the current competitive environment, according to a new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business

When asked whether additional competition in the banking industry should be a prerequisite for allowing major Canadian banks to merge with each other, 58% of respondents said “Yes”, 30% said that mergers should not be permitted under any condition, while less than 10% said that mergers should be allowed to go ahead under present circumstances.

This information will be included in a presentation this afternoon by CFIB president Catherine Swift and Brien Gray, senior vice president of field operations, to the House of Commons Finance Committee that is examining the public interest implications of large bank mergers.

“What this tells us is that there is absolutely no appetite for allowing mergers to go ahead at this point in time and that we need to shift the debate away from what are the implications of large bank mergers, to what are we going to do to increase competition in the Canadian financial services sector” said Swift.

She added, “When mergers between the Bank of Montreal & Royal Bank, and CIBC & TD were proposed in 1998, small business owners across Canada had serious objections because of the decrease in competition such mergers would entail. Since that time, with the merger between TD and Canada Trust the competitive environment has actually become even worse.”

Small business concerns surrounding less competition include the impact of mergers on service charges, banking relationships, loan rejections and access to credit. This is especially true for members in rural areas, who traditionally have fewer banking choices.