Rumours may abound as to who may be merging with who in the banking and insurance industries, but top officials from two banks said today that it will be a while before any takeovers actually occur.

In releasing his company’s third-quarter figures today, Tony Comper, Bank of Montreal’s chairman and CEO, said the political situation is not ripe yet for these kinds of takeovers in Canada.

“It still is very unclear what the receptivity would be to [these] proposed transactions and I think everyone is therefore justifiably hesitant and are not going to be proceeding,” Comper told analysts when asked why he thought mergers were not going ahead despite regulations allowing for them.

Peter Godsoe, chairman and CEO of Bank of Nova Scotia, gave a similar response as his bank released its earnings.

“I think the bottom line of it is that in Canada, mergers remain in the political arena in part. While there is a process that is clear and will be transparent in terms of anti-trust laws and in terms of regulatory overview, in the final analysis there is a political element to this in the public interest statement,” Godsoe said.

“Until there is some clarity in that, it would be difficult for anyone of us to anticipate how we would fit with someone else. I think that clarity will be forthcoming in due course…but I feel the crafting of the public interest statements will not happen for a period of time and until that happens you’re not going to see much action on the merger front.”