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Canadian retail investor sentiment is often seen as contrarian indicator, given the individual’s proclivity to buy and sell at the wrong time. Here’s hoping that they are right this time, as a survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers finds 80% of Canadians are confident in the domestic banking system.

“Canadians continue to see that our banks are well managed and can navigate through difficult times without the public bailouts that have haunted the industry globally,” says George Sheen, leader of the PwC Canada Financial Services Practice. He points to recent earnings reports as boosting confidence.

Better than seven in 10 respondents said that the banks are well-run, and 81% said they believed the strength of the large Canadian banks is critical to the health of the overall economy.

“The banks have stuck by their clients — personal and business — did not turn off the taps and provided credit when the economy needed it,” Sheen says.

Despite this confidence, only three in 10 said they thought the banks should consider further expansion outside of Canada, as foreign banking systems are viewed with suspicion following the financial crisis of the past year.

“In reality their relative strength in capital and sound risk management practices puts them in an enviable position when it comes to looking at acquisition opportunities in other countries,” says John MacKinlay, leader of the PwC Canada Banking Performance Improvement Practice. “If selective and rigorous in their assessment of both credit and market risks, there can be real value created for Canadian shareholders.”

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Claymore converts gold trust to ETF

Claymore Investments has announced the Claymore Gold Bullion Trust has met the requirements for automatic conversion to an open-ended exchange traded fund.

“We are pleased to be able to provide investors interested in holding gold bullion with an exchange traded fund structure through which they can meet their investment objective. The Claymore Gold Bullion ETF will bring enhanced liquidity to the marketplace in a secure and low-cost manner”, said Som Seif, president of Claymore Investments, Inc.

Formerly, the fund had been structured as a closed-end investment trust. The conversion process was laid out in its prospectus, requiring the daily weighted average trading price of the fund units was greater than a discount of 2% of the net asset value per fund unit for that day, for a period of 10 consecutive trading days.

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Standard Life hires RBC Dexia

Standard Life Investments (Asia) Ltd. has named RBC Dexia Investor Services to provide global custody, investment administration and shareholder services for Standard Life’s new Australian-domiciled fund.

“We undertook a rigorous evaluation of potential service providers and, in the end, we were impressed by the strong value proposition brought forward by RBC Dexia,” said James Cooper, country head for Australia at Standard Life Investments. “Their team understood our unique business requirements and demonstrated a commitment to work with us to support our long-term growth strategy in the Australian market.”

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Sprott hires Peter Loach

Sprott Asset Management has named Peter Loach as executive vice-president of product development.

“We are very excited to have Peter join our team. He brings with him a wealth of experience and a tremendous perspective on the investment industry,” said James Fox, president of Sprott Asset Management. “We believe Peter’s addition will provide significant value to our firm as we continue to seek the best investment talent and expand and diversify our product line up.”

Loach is perhaps best known for his tenure as managing director and vice-president of investment fund research at BMO Nesbitt Burns.

(12/14/09)