Briefly: ‘HST impact concerns small business owners’ and more news

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Small business owners in Ontario are worried about the effect of the harmonized sales tax (HST) on their bottom lines, according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

“Governments have clearly dropped the ball in their handling of this critical tax reform initiative,” said CFIB’s Ontario director Satinder Chera. “The decision to finalize the terms and conditions of the HST, without public consultation, has generated mixed reviews and serious concerns within Ontario’s small business community.”

Of the 3,000 respondents, 75% expressed concern over being required to charge higher tax rates on their firm’s goods and services.

In a letter to both the provincial and federal governments, the CFIB is asking that there be a reduction in the combined tax rate, compensation for the tax collection efforts of merchants and an increase in the small business transition tax credit to match the cost of implementing the HST.

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Sun Life appoints new CFO

Colm Freyne is the new executive vice-president and CFO at Sun Life Financial, the company announced today.

Freyne has been Sun Life’s Acting Chief Financial Officer since July 1, 2009. Freyne began his career with Coopers & Lybrand in Ireland. He then joined the TD Bank Financial Group where he became Chief Accountant in 1998.

“Colm is a well-respected leader with three decades of international financial services experience. He will continue to bring a disciplined approach to Sun Life’s financial affairs and a strong focus on maintaining our well-capitalized position,” said Donald A. Stewart, Sun Life Financial’s CEO.

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Credit card default rate at record level: Moody’s

Canadians are charging but not paying.

A new report from Moody’s states that the amount of unpaid credit card debt written off by issuers has risen nearly 60% to record levels in the second quarter compared to last year.

Also, the number of accounts that were 30 days past due rose 23% and the charge-off rate — when a creditor gives up collecting an unpaid debt — rose to 4.8%, a 57% increase from the second quarter last year.

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Manulife Financial commemorates 10 years

Manulife Financial is celebrating 10 years as a public company by planting 75,000 trees in Canada, the U.S. and Asia to honour the employees, agents and retirees that helped build the company.

“Since Manulife’s demutualization and listing as a public company 10 years ago, we’ve grown to be one of Canada’s largest and most international financial services companies,” said Donald Guloien, president and CEO. “We’re proud of the results we’ve achieved for our customers, policyholders and investors and believe that the current economic environment presents our company with unprecedented opportunities to build on that record and demonstrate that the best is yet to come,” he said.

Since 1999, Manulife has quadrupled in size and delivered compound annual returns of over 12% to its shareholders.

The Canadian division of Manulife Financial has also won 12 awards at the 2009 Insurance and Financial Communicators Association (I.F.C.A.) international awards.

Teams from Manulife Bank, Individual Insurance and Group Savings and Retirement Solutions were recognized for their work with customer advertising campaigns, customer education materials and employee communications.

The awards were handed out during the association’s recent annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

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B2B Trust announces investment loan rate sale campaign

For a limited time, B2B Trust will offer a rate sale of 3.25% on its variable rate 100% investment loans.

“This sale will see lower rates through to November helping advisors build their business by offering affordable borrowing to their clients,” said François Desjardins, president and CEO of B2B Trust.

The rate sale takes effect October 1 and applies to all payment and margin loan types: interest only, principal plus interest, margin call and no margin call loans with a minimum loan amount of $10,000. All loan programs are included in the rate sale: B2B Trust Standard Loan Program (for all eligible mutual funds); B2B Trust Select Loan Program (for mutual fund investments in multiple B2B Trust alliance funds); and the B2B Trust Distribution Alliance Loan Program (for mutual fund and segregated fund investments within the same family of funds offered by a Distribution Alliance).

For full details about the campaign can be found at the Loan Rate Sale microsite: b2btrust.com/ratesale.

(09/24/09)