The case was written for an introductory business course, particularly the section on operations. It deals with managing capacity and demand. In early 2008, McKenzie Scott, manager of administrative services at Nipissing Bank (Nipissing) in Ottawa, Ontario, was trying to decide how to carry out a management initiative to add additional marketing materials to client mail-out packages. In particular, Scott was considering upgrading the bank’s current .....more

This technical note uses information from the Canadian Bankruptcy Act, the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act and the Personal Property Security Act to explain the way in which collateral security is obtained and the rights of security holders in the event of bankruptcy or reorganization.

ING DIRECT USA has had a successful first 10 years: it has grown to one of the largest U.S. banks with $90 billion in assets. It has developed an innovative culture; it has a unique approach to banking; and it has a strong brand name. As a result of a regulatory requirement in the Netherlands, ING Group is required to divest ING DIRECT USA by 2013. The chairman, president and chief executive officer is reviewing his organization and thinking about .....more

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Social Media Group had to develop a social media campaign for ING Direct Canada, an online retail bank. The CEO had successfully developed social media campaigns for other businesses in the past but ING wanted the CEO to measure the success of the campaign. With little information available on how to determine the success of such strategies, the CEO set out to design one of Canada's first measurable social .....more

The case describes the situation facing Vancity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, in an environment where monetary policy was being used to stimulate the economy. The immediate decision facing the CEO was whether to raise interest rates on loans to make up for falling interest income. With close to zero per cent interest rates being advocated by the Bank of Canada, the spread between deposit and loan rates had narrowed to unprecedented levels. .....more

This note introduces the basic motivation behind Islamic finance and how it is implemented in practice. The note contains background regarding the religious principles underlying the practice of Islamic finance as well as a discussion of several products designed to be Shariah compliant and the means by which these products achieve this compliance.

Recent dramatic global events suggest that the future financial landscape will be much different than what we see today. In a world where money, people and ideas can move faster than ever before, even the smallest events can have a tremendous impact on the entire world. The report outlines key categories that will have significant impact on tomorrow's world in order to better inform today's investor. Topics of discussion include demographics .....more

This case addresses Bank of America Corporation's contemplated joint venture with China Construction Bank to enter the Chinese credit card market. The case builds on the questions of strategic alliances in foreign markets and the state of the banking and credit industries in China generally. The teaching purposes include 1) understanding the transferability of a business model to a foreign market and assessing the implications of the political, .....more

Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a field as complex in law as it is in finance. The environment is heavily regulated: it draws on corporate, securities, antitrust and national security law involving obligations at the federal, provincial and self-regulatory levels. This note is designed to introduce non-lawyer managers and finance professionals to the technical securities law issues related to changes of corporate control. While .....more

The note describes Canadian accounting principles for foreign currency transactions and translation. Through the use of a detailed example, the reader is shown the difference in translation between the temporal method and current rate method.