Equitable Trust Company has announced:
that it has received approval from the Minister of Finance to continue its wholly owned subsidiary, The Equitable Trust Company, as a Schedule I bank called Equitable Bank in English and Banque Équitable in French, effective July 1, 2013.
Converting The Equitable Trust Company into Equitable Bank is part of a strategy to strengthen the Equitable brand, established in 1970, to appeal to a new generation of financial services customers.
“Equitable’s conversion to a Schedule I bank will elevate our standing with Canadian depositors, deposit brokers, borrowers and mortgage brokers,” said Andrew Moor, President and Chief Executive Officer. “While the conversion does not alter our business model, market focus, required capital levels, risk tolerance or proven economics, it does represent an important evolution that should improve our long-term competitiveness and growth prospects in the Canadian financial services industry.”
Equitable announced its intention to apply to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (“OSFI”) and to the Minister of Finance, Canada for consent to make this change in February 2013.
Equitable Trust is the proud issuer of ETC.PR.A a 7.25%+453 FixedReset announced in August, 2009. This issue is not tracked by HIMIPref™ because it is not rated.
Good morning James,
In a somewhat comparable move, Pacific & Western Credit announced quite a while ago that they’ll be spinning their banking business off into a separate publicly traded entity. This is apparently going to happen over the next month or so.
They have two pref issues, both trading at levels that offer up some pretty high yield. PWC.PR.B is a $25 par trading in the $21’s to offer up a 10% yield. The other one, PWC.PR.A trades in the high $2 range to yield 7 or 8 %. Both are pretty illiquid, but might be reasonable investments given the nature of P & W and the upcoming re-org.
Do you have any thoughts on either of these two pref issues?