71 CBLJ 158

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THE FUTURE OF BANKING LAW

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Marc Lacoursière

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ABSTRACT 

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What does the next fifty years hold for banks and Canadian banking law? Is the past a guarantee of the future? Whilst the last five decades have been marked by various crises and several significant events, the first foreign virtual banks have appeared on Canadian soil around 1997, and a few years later, financial technology companies [FinTechs] gradually encroached on the traditional preserve of financial institutions, impacting them both through increased competition and through the regulatory deficit that characterises, if not motivates, them. On the one hand, banks have shown great resilience in the face of crises, as well as technological and societal changes. On the other hand, regulators have also adapted to these changes, as have the courts, to different degrees. Indeed, the legal framework governing the relationship between banks and their customers is difficult to define, as evidenced by the patchwork regulatory approach to payment instruments and the fight against fraud. Added to this are the democratisation of artificial intelligence, data protection and geopolitical issues, which impact both banks and regulators. The regulator’s task should not be underestimated: it is a daunting and ambitious one. Previous challenges must guide the regulator’s thinking in the coming years in order to modernise the framework for the Canadian banking ecosystem. If the past is any guide to the future, this is far from a foregone conclusion.

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“Car comme disait le duc d’Elbeuf, 

‘C’est avec du vieux qu’on fait du neuf’”

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Jacques Brel, La dame patronnesse