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The unfortunate events of the past year may lead to some good. One third of Canadian workers and retirees (33%) claim to have improved their saving habits over the past year, according to Desjardins Financial Security’s 2009 Rethink Retirement survey.

More than half of all retirees (53%) saw their savings and investments shrink, compared to 36% of workers. When asked how their habits changed, more than a quarter (27%) of the respondents said they had less money to save, while 23% indicated they put more money aside.

How did some Canadians manage to improve or maintain their financial situation? The answer is compromise, the study finds. More than half of respondents (55%) dined out less frequently, 43% postponed an important purchase to avoid using credit and 42% spent less on recreational activities. Finally, 39% said they lowered their basic expenses.

“We’ve been through a number of recessions in the past, but when it comes to bad news, people have a short-term memory,” says Michael Aziz, regional vice-president of Individual Savings Products at Desjardins Financial Security. “Will they continue to save? Who knows? I really hope they start to realize they’re going to live longer and their retirement savings need to last longer, but only time will tell.”

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CFA Institute concerned about EU transparency

The fragmentation of the European Union’s securities markets has made things less, rather than more, transparent, a new report by the CFA Institute finds.

“CFA Institute released Market Microstructure: The Impact of Fragmentation, a report that aims to show investors’ experiences since the implementation of the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), particularly the extent of market fragmentation and how it has affected issues such as transparency and cost.

Implemented in November 2007, MiFID is a wide-ranging piece of legislation that governs securities markets, intermediation, and the provision and regulation of investment services in 27 EU member states and three European Economic Areas (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). MiFID aims to increase competition, market efficiency, and investor protection through the creation of a level playing field among financial markets, products, and services throughout Europe.

The institute says most notably, MiFID led to the abolition of the “concentration rule,” which confined equity trading to the nationally regulated exchanges of some EU countries.

The survey found no empirical evidence to suggest market fragmentation has had any material affect on the quality of the price formation process for equities traded under this structure. The results reinforce the CFA Institute’s call for a consolidated system (or ‘tape’) for quote and trade data for European equity markets.

In addition to the study, the institute compiled the independent views of 962 CFA Institute members to build a qualitative and quantitative picture on the impact of market fragmentation. The results show that market fragmentation has created mixed views among investor users, with their primary concern being “difficulty in obtaining a complete and clear picture of market prices.”

“MiFID was designed to increase competition and create a level playing field in financial markets in Europe, and with exchanges losing as much as 20% market share to new platforms, we wanted to see if competition was having a positive or negative impact for investors,” says study author Rhodri Preece, CFA, director of capital markets policy for the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity. “Our study suggests that there has been no detrimental impact on the price formation process, but fair and complete access to market prices remains a concern.”

Nearly two thirds (64%) of survey respondents indicated that fragmentation may have increased the cost of data access. And nearly three quarters (70%) concluded that dark pools are problematic for price discovery.

“If these concerns are not addressed it could ultimately disadvantage large numbers of end-investors within the EU and conflict with the objectives of a fair and efficient market,” Preece says.

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National Bank faces fine for ABCP role

National Bank of Canada may be fined about $70 million by regulators as a result of its role in selling asset-backed commercial paper, the Globe and Mail reported.

The country’s sixth-largest bank is facing the heftiest fine because it was one of the biggest sellers of paper before the market froze in 2007, according to the Globe’s sources.

Other banks — including Bank of Nova Scotia and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce — are being asked to pay more than $20 million each, said the Globe.

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TD offers services for visually impaired

TD Canada Trust and TD Waterhouse have enhanced the accessibility of their online banking and investing services, creating a new tool that can be used by the visually impaired.

Developed by IBM Research in 2003, the toolbar significantly enhances the usability of online banking services for customers with low vision. The web accessibility toolbar allows people with limited vision or eye fatigue to customize the appearance of web content. User-friendly features include the ability to quickly and easily adjust font sizes, change color contrast, magnify all or a portion of the screen, and have text read aloud with adjustable speed and volume control.

“At TD we are committed to providing a comfortable experience for both customers and employees,” says Tim Hockey, president and CEO of TD Canada Trust. “It’s all about creating an environment where employees and customers feel they’re included and their needs are being met.”

(12/11/09)