CT ranks No. 1 – for the last time

For the third year in a row — every year Investment Executive has published the Bankers’ Report Card — Canada Trust employees voted their bank as the best financial institution at which to work in Canada.

IE anonymously surveyed 40 personal bankers from each of the country’s seven largest banks and CT. Employees were asked to rate their firm in 16 categories, including efficiency of technology and fairness of compensation, on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the best. After the 320 surveys were tallied, the average was taken to get the firm’s score in each category. Those numbers were plugged into a simple weighting formula to get the IE composite score, and Canada Trust emerged victorious.

The trust company dominated in taking, or sharing, top scores in eight categories, including technology, marketing, advertising and sales support, with scores well above the national average. Reputation, competitive strategy and treatment as an employee were other categories in which Canada Trust matched its rivals.

Cautiously optimistic

One CT banker summed it up: “CT has an excellent reputation.” Then he adds: “It will be interesting to see what happens with the merger. I hope it will stay as it is.”

And that is the big question. What will happen to CT once the merger with TD is completed? Most people with whom IE spoke are cautiously optimistic, those at CT a little more so than the folks at TD. “It is definitely a better place to work with the new merger, for all those involved,” says a TD banker from Northern Ontario.

But if our report card indicates anything, it’s that employees consider TD-CT well-positioned. TD tied with Royal Bank of Canada for second place, each receiving a composite score of 8.0. Royal got a whopping 9.8 for protection of client confidentiality and TD received 8.8 for the overall rating of the bank’s performance.

TD’s second-place ranking accounts for employees rating 13 categories higher than the national average. What brought TD’s score down was employees’ ratings for both pressure to accumulate assets and pressure to refer clients, with below average scores of 5.2 and 6.7, respectively. CT bankers had two of the best scores in those categories.

CT bankers don’t feel a lot of pressure to refer clients, largely because the company does not have a brokerage firm. Soon their clients will have TD Evergreen, which at least one CT employee sees as a good thing. “Our challenges have been addressed with the TD merger,” says a West Coast CT banker. “Before the merger we had gaps, now we have a brokerage where we can send our clients.”

The trust company has always been proud of its reputation for better service and extended hours. When IE researchers asked for the best aspect of their company, the automatic response from 20 of the 40 CT interviews was “our customer service.”

“The reputation is [that we are] really very good with our clients, but a lot of my clients are a bit pessimistic with the service that will come with TD-Canada Trust,” says a Toronto-based CT banker. “TD is a bank, and customers have had bad experiences dealing with banks.”

TD bankers see things from a different perspective: they expect to embrace CT’s service style.